Learning to Love
by EndlessNight025
Summary: Crystal Yuki may be the twin sister of Jaden, but with a rather distant and reserved nature to her demeanor and an aversion towards dueling, she's surprisingly very different from her affable brother. Burdened by a dark power she cannot control, can Crystal's time at Duel Academy teach her the true meaning of dueling and even help her make a few friends along the way? Zane X OC.
1. Chapter 1: Enter Crystal Yuki

**Misha: Hey, all you wonderful people out there! This is my first fanfic ever, so forgive me if I'm not very good at this. It was hard coming up with a title for this, but I think it works since it can more or less refer to multiple things in the story. But anyway, here's Chapter 1, so please enjoy. Oh, and by the way, the beginning of this story takes place sometime in between episodes 28 and 29 in the anime (since it was never specified how big that time gap was, I'm saying it was about a month or more between the two). Also, I'm like to think of myself as at least a pretty competent Duelist in real life, so expect this story to have some pretty interesting duels (Well, at least I **_**hope**_** you'll find it interesting if you like that kind of stuff, that is).**

**Okay, **_**now**_** I think we're good to go!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own **_**Yu-Gi-Oh! GX**_** or any of its characters (however the OCs are mine). ****All other rights belong to Kazuki Takahashi.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Enter Crystal Yuki**

I tapped my fingers on the armrest as I impatiently looked out at the ocean from the helicopter window, on the lookout for my destination: a little place called Duel Academy. How long was it going to take before we landed? I don't know why, but when I found out I was going to be riding in a helicopter, I assumed it would be a lot faster…

After a few minutes of still not seeing anything, I finally snapped. "Ah! How much farther is it? This is _so_ boring. I want to get there already!" I yelled, shutting my eyes and balling my hands into fists. The pilot was so lucky he couldn't hear me through the noise of the blades…

"_Oh, calm down, Crystal,"_ a sweet and bubbly voice came from out of nowhere. _"Having a fit isn't going to make it go any faster, you know." _

I opened my eyes then, suddenly looking at Dark Magician Girl's spirit floating over me. I stifled the urge to jump out of my seat in surprise. Dark had been with me for a few months now, but I still wasn't quite use to her appearing before me so suddenly. What was worse was that she was always popping up and trying to give advice when I didn't want her to, kind of like a conscience… But it was more complicated than that. See, Dark Magician Girl is my apparently duel spirit—you know; those spirits of Duel Monsters that only certain individuals could actually see (or at least that what Dark told me anyway). Imagine my dismay—I mean, 'surprise' when I found out I was one of those people…

"You're right, Dark," I sighed, sliding down in my seat. "I just really want to get to Duel Academy already so I can see Jaden…"

"_Aw… You really miss your brother, don't you? That's so cute!" _Now she was just teasing me.

Yeah, about that… I suppose I really should explain. See, my name is Crystal Yuki and Jaden Yuki just so happens to be my older twin brother— fraternal twin, of course, since I'm a girl and he's a boy and all. Jaden's really only ten minutes older than me, but that's still long enough for me to call him my dear big brother... But I digress.

I nodded slightly. "Well, of course I miss him. After all, I haven't seen my dear big brother in months. And that's exactly why I want to get off of this thing, pronto!" With that, I started going into another small tirade about how the stupid helicopter wasn't going fast enough.

"_There, there, Crystal. Remember what I just told you?"_ Dark said, trying her best to calm me down. Suddenly, her green eyes shifted their gaze to out the window, apparently spotting something. _"Oh! Crystal, look over there!"_

"Huh..?" I quieted down long enough to see what she was pointing at. Looking out the window again and down towards the sea, I finally noticed a vast island up ahead in the distance. As we got closer, I could see that it was encompassed by sandy beaches with rocky, rugged sea cliffs around the edges that had at least two waterfalls flowing from them. The interior seemed to be mostly woodlands, while a (hopefully) dormant volcano made up the mountainside. In the very center of it all was this massive, colorful building that would have probably been mistaken to be a castle at first glance. That just _had_ to be Duel Academy.

I sighed in relief. "Well, it's about time. I thought we'd never get there…"

* * *

After several more minutes, the helicopter finally touched down on a helipad near the harbor. Before the blades even stopped spinning all the way, I unbuckled my seat belt and bolted from that accursed aircraft. The pilot had said that someone would come by to pick up my bags, so I didn't even bother grabbing any of my things. I didn't need them right now anyway. All I needed was my deck and Duel Disk and I was good to go.

When I got out, I was surprised to see that there were three people there apparently waiting for me. I sure wasn't expecting a welcoming committee…

One of them—the man in the middle—was a somewhat hefty old guy in a burgundy coat who had a short square beard, a shiny bald head, and a jolly look on his face.

On the right was a tall, boney individual with purple lips and light blond hair pulled back into a long ponytail, dressed in a long blue coat with pink frilly sleeves. Judging from the overall appearance, I was pretty sure this was a man I was looking at, although his hairstyle and odd attire still had me second-guessing myself for a second...

Then was the boy on the left. Just taking one look at him immediately took my breath away. He looked around two or three years older than me, dressed in a long white and blue uniform with long blue pants. His semi-long hair was a dark teal-blue which matched perfectly with his cold blue eyes. Oh, man, his eyes! There was something about them that just made my legs go weak and shake as I stared into them, suddenly making me feel lost in some sort of ocean-blue void within those eyes.

He must have noticed me staring, because I swear I saw him stare right back at me. His expression was… Oh, how can I describe it? He didn't smile at me, yet he didn't frown either. His face was just plain and stoic—the essence of coolness (I think so, anyway). It was like he was looking at me yet also staring right through me all at the same time.

At that moment, I got really lightheaded as I listened to the sound of my heart pounding in my chest, and for a second I thought I might even pass out right then and there. What was going on with me? I wondered. It was a strange and new sensation that made me feel utterly exhilarated. And yet, at the same time it also terrified the hell out of me. Was I feeling like this because of this stranger?

_This guy is… something else…_ was all I could think of as I continued to gaze at this mysterious boy, not exactly knowing if I should be captivated by, or frightened, of him.

I found myself lost deep in thought until the sound of that old man's voice brought me back to reality.

"Hello there. You must be our new transfer student. My name is Chancellor Sheppard," he said. "This is Dr. Crowler," he pointed at the person to the right, "and this is Zane Truesdale—a third-year from Obelisk Blue." This time he pointed to the blue-eyed boy.

My heart pounded fiercely in my chest once again. So his name was Zane, was it? I was definitely going to have to remember that name, I thought to myself. But now really wasn't the time to be hung up on this guy. I had more important things to do right now, like actually getting into this school first…

To be polite, I bowed to them all in greetings. "Hello. It's very… nice to meet you all. My name is Crystal Yuki and I'd really appreciate it if you'd all commit it to memory."

"Great, just what we need: _another _Yuki…" I heard Crowler mutter under his breath, sounding rather annoyed for some reason.

I glared at him instantly. Why would he say something like that? Did he know Jaden or something? And if he did, why did he sound so mad? My big brother was the best. Jaden was the whole reason I even bothered coming here, really...

"Now, Crystal, as you know, although you've already passed a written exam, to determine your rank in the Academy, you'll have to partake in an Evaluation Duel," said the Chancellor.

"Yes, about that… I don't know if it's possible or not, but if you don't mind, could you please see to it that I duel someone really strong? Like the best Duelist you have here, if possible?" I asked, trying my best to smile like I meant it.

He seemed surprised by my request. "Well, that's a rather unusual request. Why are you interested in such a thing, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Why…?" I echoed, biting my lower lip as I struggled to think of a good excuse. I couldn't very well tell them the real reason I wanted to duel the school's strongest Duelist was because I figured they would be able to take a few hits without keeling over in pain. No, somehow I think that might raise even more questions... Lying a little bit was probably my best option here. "Um, well, the way I see it, if I have to duel, I want to go up against someone worthwhile to prove that I really do belong here, and who better to face but the best? Besides, I think it would be a… 'nice' experience. So what do you say?"

"Someone seems a bit overconfident…" Crowler mumbled to himself again.

I glared mildly at him for a second time, taking issue with that comment, but I did my best to ignore him as I waited for Sheppard's answer.

He smiled down at me. "Well, you certainly have high expectations, don't you? I admire that. Of course it's fine with me." He looked over at Zane suddenly. "What about you, Zane? Do you mind dueling Crystal?"

My eyes widened as I glanced back over at that Truesdale guy. No way… He was the top Duelist here? Well, I guess that _would_ explain why he was out here out of all the other students…

Zane stared at me intently for a minute, probably trying to size me up or something. It was either that, or it was because he just thought I was nuts. Regardless, I found myself standing up a little straighter than usual, my hands to my sides and balled up into fists as I awaited his response.

Then, miraculously, he simply shrugged and answered, "Sure, why not? You're on, kid."

"R-Really?" I gawked in a bit of disbelief. "Oh, I mean, 'thank you so much!'" Without hesitation, I bowed my head to show my appreciation.

"Okay, then it's settled. Crystal you will be dueling Zane for your entrance exam," the chancellor said.

"Great. Thanks again…" I sighed, relieved that things were going smoothly for me so far.

* * *

So even with the duel arrangements in order, there was still the simple matter of actually getting to the Dueling Arena. Sheppard and Crowler had gone on ahead which just left Zane and me. The third-year was leading the way while I walked a few feet behind him, doing my best to keep up.

Not wanting to get too far behind, I walked a little faster as I tried to match Zane's pace. Since his legs were a lot longer than mine, it wasn't easy though, but somehow I managed to catch up. And when I did, though I know it could be considered rude, I started to stare at him again. My eyes just refused to focus on anything else for some reason.

He was looking straight ahead as he walked, still with that stoic look on his face. He must have felt my eyes on him or something, because then he suddenly turned his head to look right at me.

Panicking, I quickly whipped my head to look in the other direction, trying to pretend I had been that way the entire time. My heart started racing again. Why did it keep doing that every time he looked at me? I placed a hand over my heart in an attempt to calm it down. _Am I nervous?_ _But why…? _I wondered, now starting to get frustrated that I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me today.

"Are you feeling alright?" a deep voice interrupted my thoughts.

"What…?" I looked up again to see that Zane was still looking at me. He was the one who asked the question, I realized after a while. "Am I alright? Of… of course I am! I have absolutely no reason not to be…" I assured him, although it kind of felt like I was trying to convince myself the same thing.

"If you say so," he said shrugging his shoulders slightly. After that, there were a few moments of silence until Zane finally added, "So, Crystal… Your last name's Yuki, right? You wouldn't happen to be related to Jaden Yuki, would you?"

I looked over at him again, blinking in surprise. "What? You know my big bother?" I blurted out, probably raising my voice a little louder than I should have.

"I take that as a 'yes' then?" Zane said, noting my outburst.

I blushed slightly in embarrassment and just nodded in response this time.

"To answer your question, I guess you can say I know Jaden," he went on. "He and I had a duel not too long ago."

"Is that so…?" My face suddenly lit up at the mention of my brother. I couldn't help it though; everything Jaden-related always got me excited. "That's cool, but I guess that means you must have won considering how you're the best Duelist here and all…" I said, becoming slightly dejected at the idea of my big brother losing to anyone. "Oh, but please tell me, do you know how Jaden is or at least what dorm he's in? My brother never remembers to write or call home, so I haven't heard from him in a while now…"

"He seemed to be doing well the last time I saw him," Zane said answering my first question. "As for his dorm… He's in Slifer Red—the same as my younger brother."

"Oh, so you have a brother, too?" I inquired; surprised to find something that we actually had in common.

Zane scowled slightly then which put a little unease back in my heart. "Yes, but sometimes I'm still a bit reluctant to admit it," he said.

"And why's that?" I asked, not understanding why he seemed so upset. Sure, my brother sometimes did things that embarrassed or annoyed me, but I could never really stay mad at him for very long.

He turned his gaze away from me then, looking straight ahead as he answered, "Although he's getting better, he still doesn't have much confidence in his dueling abilities. When he goes up against someone, he usually does himself in rather than his opponent."

"Oh… I see…" I replied, not really sure how else to respond to that. I could see that this conversation was only probably going to get even more awkward if it kept going, so I decided not to say anything else for the time being.

* * *

So after what seemed like a very long trip, we finally managed to make it to the Dueling Arena where I was to complete my entrance exam. The stadium was packed with sea of students, apparently all looking to see a show. How the hell did they find out about this duel so damn fast anyway?

I frowned slightly as I gazed at the crowd surrounding us in all directions. I didn't do so well in crowds and was therefore kind of hoping for something a little more private... But now really wasn't the time to complain.

Zane and I took our places on the field, just about ready to start.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath_ Alright, Crystal, just remember: Don't lose control… Don't lose control…_ I thought to myself, repeating that little mantra over and over again in my head.

Dark Magician Girl appeared besides me once again. _"You're still worried about someone getting hurt, aren't you?" _she asked, having a pretty good idea what was on my mind.

'_A little…' _I admitted, now holding both of my hands tightly together to stop them from shaking.

"_Well, don't worry, Crystal,"_ Dark said, trying to cheer me up. _"Remember, that seal on your arm is there to make sure nothing like that will happen, so you have nothing to be afraid of."_

I opened my eyes and stared down at the red pentagram-shaped mark on my right shoulder. Dark had been the one who put that seal on me to help me with my little "problem."

What problem, you may be wondering? Well, I guess I should explain that, too…

It's hard to put into words exactly, but you see, I kind of have these certain "special abilities." Though even calling them that wasn't the right word for it. Since nothing good ever came out of them, they were more like a curse.

Ever since I can remember, probably even since the day I was born for all I know, I've had these strange, dark powers that could let me do just about anything I wanted. Well… anything I wanted as long as it involved destroying something that is. See, although I've had these powers for a long time now, I regrettably still have almost no control over them which usually ends up causing bad things to happen around me. I won't go into anything too specific other than that it usually involved black fire mysteriously igniting out of nowhere...

What's worse is that it also affected the way I dueled. In the past, whenever I attacked with a monster or activated a card that caused damage, that accursed power of mine would somehow bring my cards to life and caused my opponent, and just about anything else around, to sustain real damage. Needless to say I've hurt quite a few people over the years, which I'm not proud to admit. It got so bad that after a while I became a sort of pariah to everyone that knew me. No one wanted to duel or even be around me because they thought I was going to do something horrible to them. They all thought of me as some kind of witch… a monster…

One of the only people who didn't see me that way was Jaden. He knew I wasn't like that and always accepted me no matter what. That was probably one of the reasons I wanted to see him again so badly…

But anyway, like I said, what I have is a curse which is why I asked Dark Magician Girl to help me in the first place. That seal she put on my arm was meant to keep my powers in check and while it unfortunately couldn't get rid of them completely, it at least weakened them enough so I wouldn't hurt anyone when I dueled. I practiced with it a lot at home so I knew it worked for the most part, but I admit, I never tested it out in a real duel before. _That_ was the real reason why I wanted to face the strongest Duelist here. I figured that if they were really as powerful as they claimed then surely they would be able to use some of that strength of theirs to protect themselves from me if things ended up getting out of hand.

But still…What if something really did go wrong? What if someone got hurt anyway? Maybe it was a mistake to come here after all…

Dark must have seen the still-worried look on my face because then she added, _"Everything's going to be alright, Crystal. I promise. Dueling is supposed to be fun, so please just try to enjoy yourself." _

Fun… That was one word I could never really associate with dueling. I mean, it's kind of hard to enjoy any duel when my opponents always collapsed in agony after just a few of my attacks… After a while I gave up on the concept of ever enjoying duels and just focused on ending them as quickly as possible as a way to lessen my opponents' pain and my frustration. It was just like ripping of a bandage really…

But with luck, maybe things really would be different now. I had to be like Dark and try to think positive.

I shook my head vigorously for a few seconds to clear my mind of all those negative thoughts. _'Yeah, you're right, Dark!'_ I told her, feeling a little bit better now. _'I'll make sure to do my best then.'_

"_That's great to hear!" _Dark smiled before disappearing, her spirit returning to my deck.

With that, I glanced back up at the boy who was to be my opponent. "Alright then, Zane, are you ready?" I asked, activating the Duel Disk that was on my right arm in a heartbeat.

"Whenever you are," he replied, activating his as well.

We drew our hands and both cried out, "DUEL!"

(Crystal: 4000 LP/Zane: 4000 LP)

* * *

**~Jaden's Point of View~**

"Hurry up, Jaden! We're going to miss the whole thing at this rate!" my friend Syrus yelled, pulling me by the arm in a failing attempt to reach the Dueling Arena faster. It might have been easier if I didn't keep dragging my feet. I couldn't help it though. I mean, I just got out of bed almost five minutes ago so I was still pretty tired. Sometimes twelve hours of sleep just wasn't enough…

"Whoa, what's your hurry anyway, Sy?" I asked.

"Didn't you hear? Some new transfer student is gonna duel my big bro right now for their entrance exam!" Syrus answered, not stopping for a second.

The mention of dueling woke me up in a heartbeat. "You mean Zane? But why would they be dueling him?" It sounded like it would be a sweet duel, but it was still a little weird considering how most new Duelists were supposed to face Duel Instructors, not other students.

"Well, I heard they actually _asked _to duel the strongest student of campus! Can you believe that?" Sy exclaimed as we finally reached the doors to the arena.

"Really? That sounds awesome! They must really be something then!" I grinned, suddenly fired-up about the idea of having a new powerful Duelist around to challenge. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go check it out then!"

With that, I opened the doors to the arena and we walked in. Once inside, we were engulfed with the noise of the giant crowd. I looked around, a bit surprised. Even though it was a Saturday, I still wasn't expecting to see this big of a turnout. I guess everyone was pretty excited to see the Kaiser duel this new mystery student as well…

"Hey, Jaden, Syrus! Over here!" I heard someone suddenly yell. I looked around the crowded stadium for a few seconds until I finally saw Alexis waving to us from a few rows away. Bastion and Chumley were with her as well.

I waved back as Syrus and I maneuvered our way down the aisle. "Hey, guys!" I greeted them as we sat down. "So what did we miss?"

"Nothing really," Bastion answered. "The duel just started, actually."

"Well, that's a relief," I sighed, glad I hadn't missed any of the action. "So who's Zane dueling anyway?"

"I'm not sure exactly," Alexis started, "but I thought I heard her name was Crystal, or something like that..."

_Crystal? There's no way… _I trailed off as looked down towards the field, thinking there was no way that could be the same Crystal I was thinking of. But when I finally gazed upon the Kaiser's opponent, my eyes went wide in shock. Standing opposite of Zane was a relatively petite fair-skinned girl with unusually long, dark brown hair that reached down to the calves of her legs, and deep violet eyes that I'd recognize anywhere.

I couldn't believe it at first, but it really _was_ her. It was my sister. _But what's Crys doing here? _I wondered, still not able to figure out why my sister was at Duel Academy of all places. I mean, Crystal didn't even really like dueling! And I should know; after all, she's told me enough times...

"Are you alright, Jaden?" Alexis asked, obviously noticing the stunned look on my face.

"Yeah…" I managed to nod as I continued to stare down at the duel that was about to unfold.

* * *

**~Crystal's Point of View~**

"So who makes the first move?" I inquired, gazing over at my opponent.

"It's ladies first," Zane answered, giving me the honor of starting things off.

I just shrugged. "If that's what you want... I guess I'll go then." With that, I drew my sixth card and added it to my hand. "Okay, I'll start things off by playing the Spell Card, Poison of the Old Man," I declared as I activated the card. "This is how it works: I can either choose to increase my Life Points by 1200, or I can inflict 800 points of damage to my opponent. And to be safe, I think I'll go with the first option." So just like that, my Life Points increased to 5200.

To be honest, the real reason I chose that effect was because I still wasn't ready to attack just yet. I still had to psych myself up a little, I guess… I wasn't done just yet, though. "Next, I'll summon Masked Dragon in Defense Mode."

A red and white dragon wearing a grinning mask soon appeared crouched down on my side of the field (ATK 1400/ DEF 1100).

"Finally, I'll place one card face down and end my turn," I said, setting a card in my Spell/Trap Card Zone.

"So that's it? Fine; then it's my turn," said Zane coolly as he started his turn by drawing a card. "Alright...I call forth Cyber Dragon in Attack Mode."

Just like that, a giant, metallic serpent with glistening fangs and glowing yellow eyes sprang from the ground and coiled around Zane with a thunderous growl (ATK 2100/ DEF 1600).

"Impressive," I noted as I looked on, though my gaze was really focused more on Zane rather than his monster. "Not a bad start, but don't you normally need a sacrifice to summon a monster that strong?"

"Well, if you must know," Zane explained, "that's Cyber Dragon's effect. If I have no monsters on my side of the field, but my opponent does on theirs, I can Special Summon Cyber Dragon onto the field from my hand."

"Hum, well isn't that a nice little trick…?" I mused nonchalantly. "But something tells me you're not done yet, are you?"

"You're right about that," he informed me. "Since I still have my Normal Summon, next I'll bring out my Cyber Phoenix in Attack Mode."

In a shower of golden sparks, this sliver and orange metal bird-like creature floated onto Zane's field (ATK 1200/ DEF 1600).

"And just to let you know," my opponent went on, "as long as Cyber Phoenix remains in Attack Mode, it can negate the effects of Spells and Traps that specifically target one Machine-Type monster on my field."

I puffed a stand of hair out of my face and glowered a little after hearing that comment. What an annoying effect that was! The card I placed face down earlier was a Trap called Enchanted Javelin, but thanks to that stupid, flaming metal chicken I wouldn't be able to activate it since my card evolved targeting one of Zane's monsters.

"Well, now that that's all gone over, I'll use Cyber Phoenix to attack your Masked Dragon!" Zane declared with a wave of the arm.

The robotic bird gladly followed orders as it began to flap its wings, creating a gust of fiery wind that sailed across the field and quickly incinerated my dragon.

I wasn't too worried though. "Good job, but you just triggered my Masked Dragon's effect. When he's destroyed by battle and sent to my Graveyard, I can Special Summon another Dragon-type monster with 1500 Attack Points or less from my deck to take his place, and I choose another Masked Dragon."

So another Masked Dragon appeared on my field, crouched down in Defense Position.

"Too bad he won't be around for long!" exclaimed Zane. "Now go, Cyber Dragon! Destroy her dragon with Strident Blast!"

Immediately, his Cyber Dragon opened its mouths and shot a ray of blue lightning at Masked Dragon, obliterating him in seconds.

"Yeah, but don't forget: since you destroyed Masked Dragon in battle, I can use his effect to Special Summon yet _another_ dragon from my deck that meet the conditions, and this time I'm calling out my Red-Eyes Black Chick."

A little black dragon with ruby-red eyes appeared on my side of the field then, breaking out of his molten-rock egg as he floated in front of me in Attack Mode (ATK 800/ DEF 500).

"I end my turn," Zane stated briefly as he brought his move to a close.

"So I guess it means it's my turn again," I said already drawing my next card. "First, I activate the Spell, Graceful Charity. Thanks to this card, I'm allowed to draw three new cards as long as I discard two afterwards."

I picked up three cards from the top of my deck. When I looked at them, I saw that I had drawn Magician's Valkyria, Smashing Ground, and Dark Magician Girl. Not bad, I thought to myself. When all was said and done, I ended up getting rid of Magician's Valkyria and the Dark Magician that was already in my hand.

"And now, since my Red-Eyes Black Chick is now on the field, I can activate his effect, letting me sacrifice him in order to Special Summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon from my hand!"

My little dragon was swallowed in a fiery light and was soon replaced with its much bigger self, the full-grown Red-Eyes Black Dragon (ATK 2400/ DEF 2000).

"And there's more," I continued, not done by a long shot. "Now that Red-Eyes is on the field, I can use this Spell Card: Inferno Fire Blast. So now I just select a Red-Eyes Black Dragon on the field, which I happen to have as you can see, and then you lose Life Points equal to my dragon's original Attack Points!"

_Here we go…_ I thought anxiously, biting my lower lip as I braced myself for whatever was about to happen.

Red-Eyes gave a thundering screech as it let out a great, claret-colored ball of fire from his mouth, hurling it right at Zane. He merely watched with his arms crossed as the inferno quickly closed in on him. Bang! Truesdale was engulfed in a plume of flame, costing him 2400 Life Points. I held my breath for several seconds, silently praying that my powers hadn't somehow activated after all and ended up hurting the guy.

When the flames died down and the smoke finally cleared, I was stunned to see that not only was Zane fine after that last attack, but he seemed totally unfazed by it. I mean, during the course of my Red-Eyes' onslaught he hadn't moved a single muscle. He didn't even flinch! Now _that _was something I had never seen before.

_Wow...He really is something else..._ I thought as my heart fluttered wildly once again in a mix of both awe and relief. But what was even better was that the seal I had really worked! Truesdale didn't seem to be in any pain from that last attack at all which meant I didn't have to hold back as much anymore.

"Anyway," I went on, trying my best to hide my sudden excitement. "Since my Red-Eyes isn't allowed to attack due to Inferno Fire Blast's other effect, I'll just sacrifice him to bring out my Dark Magician Girl!"

With a twirl of her staff and a playful wink, Dark Magician Girl soon took Red-Eyes' place on the field as he was sent to chill out in my Graveyard (ATK 2000/ DEF 1700).

"But that's not all, because thanks to the Dark Magician I just discarded a few moments ago, my Dark Magician Girl's effect allows her to gain an extra 300 Attack points as long as he's kicking it in the Grave."

Dark Magician Girl was soon covered in a bright pink light, increasing her Attack to 2300.

"Now go, Dark Magician Girl, destroy his Cyber Phoenix with your Dark Burning Attack!"

"_You got it, Crystal!"_ With a wave of her staff, Dark let loose a pink orb of fiery light which did its job by hitting Cyber Phoenix square-on, destroying it in seconds and taking 1100 of Zane's Life Points along with it.

(Crystal: 5200 LP/ Zane: 500 LP)

"Heh… Not bad," Zane admitted which made my face burn slightly for some reason. "But thanks to by Cyber Phoenix's other effect, when it's destroyed, I'm allowed to draw one card from my deck."

"That's just fine," I commented with a curt shrug as Zane proceeded with drawing a card from his deck. "But now that your Phoenix is out of the way, that means your Machine monsters are once again vulnerable to my Spells and Traps. And speaking of which, I think I'll activate this: the Spell known as Smashing Ground. With this card, the monster on your field with the highest Defense Points is instantly destroyed, and since Cyber Dragon is the only monster you have out right now, it looks like it's going to be the one that has to go."

As my card activated, the ground began to shake fiercely under Zane's monster, suddenly causing a giant fissure to open up. Cyber Dragon then promptly fell into the deep crevice, sending it to the Graveyard just like that.

"And considering how that was my last card and I'm out of things to do, I guess I'll end my turn," I finished.

"You know, you're pretty impressive yourself, Crystal," said Zane, which once again caused my face to break into a mild fever. "But make no mistake—I am the best."

_Then by all means, please show me…_ I thought as I waited for Zane to start his turn.

"First I'll activate Monster Reborn and use its effect to bring back my Cyber Dragon." At his words, Cyber Dragon reappeared on Zane's field.

Damn... Didn't I just get rid of that?

"And now, from my hand, I activate the Spell Card, Power Bond," Zane said raising the card above his head as he played it.

"Power Bond?" I echoed, my eyes going wide. I'm pretty sure I've heard of that card somewhere before, and if I remembered right, its effect meant bad news for me.

"That's right. And now I'll use Power Bond's effect to fuse the Cyber Dragon I have on the field with the two in my hand!" Zane cried out. "Behold!"

The three silver serpents suddenly all twisted into this huge portal above Zane's head. There was a blinding white light, making me have to shield my eyes. When it was finally safe to look, I opened my eyes once more. A wordless cry of surprise escaped my lips when I saw Zane's new monster. It was this giant, metallic white serpent-dragon with three heads, shiny wings, and a4000 Attack Point strength.

"Crystal, meet my friend, the Cyber End Dragon!" Zane called.

Although the crowd went wild at the sight of Zane's monster, all I could do was stare up at the glowing beast in silence.

"But that's not all," Zane went on. "Thanks to Power Bond, my Cyber End's attack power is doubled to 8000!"

The steel dragon let out a thunderous roar from each of its three throats at its Attack skyrocketed to exactly that.

"Wow! He's really strong now," I commented with a gasp as I finally snapped out of my trance.

"You're about to see how powerful he is first hand. Now attack, Cyber End Dragon! Annihilate her Dark Magician Girl and the rest of her Life Points! Super Strident Blast!" Zane waved his arm as the Cyber End Dragon formed balls of white lighting in each of its three jaws and releasing them straight at Dark Magician Girl.

"Hey, don't count me out just yet! I unfortunately may not be able to save Dark, but at least I can spare some of my Life Points," I said, revealing my face-down card. "I activate my Trap, Enchanted Javelin! With this, I gain Life Points equal to your attacking Cyber End Dragon's current Attack Points!"

So right before his monster's attack went through, my Life Points shot up to 13200. They didn't stay that way for very long, however, because then Cyber End Dragon destroyed Dark Magician Girl, costing me 5700 Life Points, dropping them down to 7500 in an instant.

Dark Magician Girl appeared beside me once again, this time in spirit form. She held the side of her head like she had a massive headache. She probably got it from getting blasted so hard. _"Ouch! That wasn't very pleasant,"_ she said with a wince. _"But my, their power is incredible!"_

'_Yes, it certainly is…' _I agreed as I continued to stare intently at my opponent. "Well, you certainly are something else, Zane, aren't you?"I smirked. "But it was a bit of a risk playing Power Bond, wasn't it? I mean, since you can't end the duel this turn, won't you take damage from its other effect now?"

He didn't seem to share my concern though. "I wouldn't be too sure about that," Zane informed me. He must have seen the look of confusion on my face because then he added, "I now activate the Quick-Play Spell, De-Fusion, allowing me to return Cyber End Dragon to my Extra Deck in order to re-summon my three Cyber Dragons!"

So just like that, Zane's Cyber End Dragon disappeared in the same light it came in and was soon replaced by his three Cyber Dragons, all with an Attack of 2100.

_Huh… How clever_, I mused. Not only did Zane get three new monsters he could still attack with this turn, but now since Cyber End Dragon left the field, Power Bond lost its target which meant that its damage effect wouldn't activate.

"Now go, my monsters! Attack her directly!" Zane called out, pointing right at me.

At his command, the three Dragons simultaneously opened their jaws wide and each shot out a great bolt of blue lightning with thunderous roar. Bang! Bam! Ka-boom! All three of them ended up hitting me one after the other, dealing me 6300 more points worth of damage and sending me flying back in the process.

When it was all over, I found myself down on the ground with only a mere 1200 Life Points. For a long while I just laid there flat on my back, staring off into space as my mind tried to process what was suddenly happening to me.

I was breathing a little faster now, my heart felt like it was racing a mile a minute, and I was suddenly finding it very difficult to stifle the urge to burst into laughter. What was this feeling, I wondered? I know I felt it enough of times before, but never in a situation like this…

And that's when it finally hit me: this feeling was that of enjoyment; excitement; pleasure. In other words… fun. Wait… I was actually having _fun_ dueling!? I still had a hard time believing it at first. Like I said, this had never happened to me during a duel before, so it was really throwing me for a loop.

After my initial shock finally subsided, I sprang back up on my feet at once. "Wow! Just wow! That was absolutely amazing!" I exclaimed; my eyes ignited with sudden excitement. Now I couldn't quite control what I was saying, but I was feeling so good at that point, I really didn't care. "You just managed to dish out 12000 points of damage in a single turn! I don't think anyone has ever hit me _that_ hard before! You're… you're so cool!"

Maybe I was just imagining it, but I could have sworn I saw the upper corners of Zane's lips turn upward slightly, like he was smiling a little bit. But like I said, maybe it was only in my head because it disappeared just as fast as it had come and he was back to that stoic expression of his. "Why thank you, but I'm afraid I'm not quite done yet," he went on.

As for me, I just tilted my head to the side and leaned forward a little; waiting eagerly to see what he would do next. He couldn't attack any more this turn now, so what else could he do?

"Now I activate the Spell, Polymerization," said Zane as he inserted the last card in his hand in his Duel Disk. "And I think I'll use it to fuse my three Cyber Dragons to re-summon my Cyber End Dragon!"

In another shower of light, Zane's Cyber End Dragon returned to the field, though this time having only its original Attack Points (ATK 4000/ DEF 2800).

Damn… Zane must really be fond of that monster, I figured. And with good reason, too: it was wicked powerful!

"It's your turn now, Crystal," he finished, finally handing the reins over to me.

"Thanks," I answered, though I didn't actually do anything for a moment. All I could do was gaze up at that Cyber End Dragon hanging over me, wondering how I was going to deal with it exactly. I didn't have any cards in my hand that could destroy it right now. In fact, my hand didn't have any cards in it at all, so unless I miraculously drew something good right then, it was all over…

I tossed my head from side to side a little bit then, clearing my head. Oh, forget worrying about that! After all, what did it matter? I mean, I was actually having fun with this duel! I guess this Zane guy wasn't so bad after all… And on top of that, he was a pretty damn amazing Duelist, too!

All I could do now was throw caution to the wind and hope for the best. "Right, so it's my turn!" I said drawing a card from the top of my deck, slicing the air with all my might. When I saw what it was, I couldn't help but smile. "Alright! I may still have a chance here!" I said, instantly playing the card without a second thought. "From my hand I activate the Card of Sanctity Spell Card, so now we both get to draw until we're each holding six cards in our hands."

So with that, both Zane and I proceeded in drawing the appropriate amount of cards, which in this case ended up being six for the both of us. I know it was a little risky giving my opponent a brand new hand and all, but I really didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to stay in this duel. All I had to hope for now was that I had drawn something useful…

I looked down at my new hand, and while I didn't see it right away, when my gaze finally fell on the third card from the right, my eyes widened at the sight of Chaos Emperor Dragon. I was stunned at first, unable to believe my good luck, but a few seconds later a small smile flashed across my face as I realized this duel was mine.

But as quickly as it had come, my smirk suddenly vanished as a very unpleasant thought crossed my mind: If I won now, that means this duel, and all this fun I was having, would come to an end. I was hoping I could drag this duel out a little longer for once so I could spend a bit more time with Zane, but somehow I knew that if I didn't finish things this turn, he would probably find a way to beat me in the next, so our time was short anyway.

I sighed to myself and gazed back over at Zane who was patiently waiting for me to make a move. "Sorry to keep you waiting for so long," I apologized, bowing slightly. "I was just thinking what a shame it is that our duel's going to end this turn…"

"Is that so?" Zane crossed his arms, seeming as cool and calm as ever.

"That's right, and it's all thanks to this card!" I called out, raising my trump card high above my head. "I remove the Magician's Valkyria and Red-Eyes Black Chick in my Graveyard from play in order to Special Summon the monster that will ultimately be your demise!"

At that moment a giant black vortex opened behind me, with lightning shooting out from the edges in every direction. From the stands, I could hear the crowd begin to get rather antsy from the little lightshow I just initiated. Heh… Well if something like _that_ got them excited, then they were really going to flip-out when they saw what was coming next...

A few seconds later, a great emerald-green and gold dragon stormed out of the portal, his long blood-red mane flowing behind him as he spread out his wings and emanated a deafening, angry roar (ATK 3000/ DEF 2500).

"Bow before the might of Chaos Emperor Dragon- Envoy of the End!" I exclaimed.

And, just like I thought, those noisy spectators lost it at the sight of my monster; irrupting in cries of shock and amazement.

Although Zane was better at controlling his emotions than the rest of the student body, for a brief moment I saw a look in his eyes that suggested that not even he expected my Chaos Emperor Dragon to make an appearance in this duel. Even so, he merely stood there, gazing on in silence.

Meanwhile, I just stated up at my monster, unable to help feeling a little bit proud. After all, it wasn't every day that I summoned the great Chaos Emperor Dragon. Then again, that might have something to do with the fact that I only had about two Light-Attribute monsters in my deck which made it kind of difficult for me to summon him in the first place… But again, I digress.

"Beautiful, isn't he?" I asked my opponent as I pointed up at the regal dragon hanging over me. "Now, I know my dear Chaos may not be as strong as your Cyber End Dragon, but then again, I didn't really summon him to attack with…" I shook my head slightly. "No, as you can probably guess, I'm much more interested in his Special Effect, and by paying 1000 Life Points, it automatically activates!"

As my Life Points decreased to a sparse 200, Chaos Emperor Dragon started to cast about an aura of the darkest shade of red as a sphere of energy began to form in his gaping jaws.

"So now, thanks to his effect, every card in our hands and our side of the field go straight to the Graveyard and then you take 300 points of damage for each one sent," I explained. "Let's see, so with each of us having one card on the field, and with six cards in your hand and five in mine, that's a grand total of thirteen which means you lose… Oh, wow! 3900 points!" I gasped after taking a second to do the math in my head; surprised after coming up with such a high number.

3900 point of damage did certainly seem like quite an overkill considering Zane only had 500 Life Points left to lose, but there wasn't anything I could do about that now. All I could do was offer him up a little advice. "Um, you might want to brace yourself…"

No sooner had I finished uttering that last syllable, my dragon finally released all that energy he was storing, shooting it out of his mouth like a cannon. The blast created a wave of flames so great that it completely consumed all the cards in our hands, Zane's Cyber End Dragon, and finally Chaos Emperor Dragon himself. With nothing else left to burn, the torrent of flames then headed straight for Zane; raining down over him and swallowing him up in an instant.

All the while I just stood there completely dumbfounded, wondering if I had gone a little overboard in choosing to use Chaos Emperor Dragon's effect to end the duel like that. I was also starting to worry about Zane again, convinced that I really had blasted him into oblivion this time.

_Oh, crap! Please be alright! Please, __**please**__ just be alright_, I silently prayed as I franticly waited for all the flames to die down. And when they finally did vanish, so did my worry as I was once again able to see Zane from across the field. He was still in one piece, thank goodness, but the same couldn't be said about his Life Points: they were at zero.

It was then I noticed that the whole arena had fallen completely silent. Just when I was beginning to think that I had somehow managed to knock the whole audience out cold, the next thing I knew I heard a deafening roar erupt from the students!

My eyes went wide in surprise as I continued to listen to the unfamiliar sound of cheering and applauding. After all, I had gotten so used to all of my duels ending in cries of shock or terror I never thought a whole crowd would actually praise my dueling. But still, at that moment I closed my eyes and smiled; taking in the sound as if it were music. _Yeah, I can definitely get used to this… _

Feeling rather bold at that moment, I turned my attention back to Zane, deciding to do something I've secretly always wanted to try... "And as my drear Jaden would say…" I started, now emulating my brother by giving a two fingered salute and winking like he always did after winning a duel. "That's game!"

* * *

**Misha: Well, that's it for Chapter 1! So sorry if I broke any of "The Rules" by making my OC be related to a canon character **_**and**_** letting her beat another one in the same chapter. But then again, my story, my rules! If you do not like it, that's fine. Just please stop reading then. I mean, it's not like anyone's forcing you to at gun point or anything, right? (But if it turns out that someone really **_**is **_**doing such a thing, then please just tell me and I will gladly call for help if I can!)**

**Oh, and it case I wasn't all that clear, the deck Crystal uses is made up of mostly Dragons, but as you saw… Er, I mean 'read,' she also has a few Spellcasters in it as well (there's also a few Fiends, but those will come in later on). At first I wanted to give her Burn Deck since that's the one I run most of the time am therefore most familiar with (besides Lightwings/ Blacksworns), but then I remembered how kinda sadistic and slightly OP it would be in duels with only 4000 Life Points, so in the end I figured a semi-Aggro Dragon/Spellcaster Deck was probably better for writing out interesting duels. (Does anything I just wrote actually make any sense to you?)**

**Okay! I think I've gotten everything off my chest… Sorry if I gave anyone a headache with all my ranting. Anyway, Chapter 2 will be up as soon as I find time away from school stuff. (Man, why did I decide to take summer classes?) Still, look forward to it! **

**Rate and review if you so wish, but remember… No flaming please!**


	2. Chapter 2: Another Side

**Misha: Hey, everyone. Sorry if this counts as a late update, but some pretty heavy things have happened in my life recently that put me in no shape or mood to write for a long time. See, my poor dog recently passed away from cancer at only 8 ½ years old in the most tragic of ways, and I've been mourning her ever since. I don't know if any of you guys are dog lovers or not and I don't care if you think I'm being over-emotional or anything, but my little beagle was a very important part of my life, so her passing is probably going to affect me for a while... **

**Still, I know you didn't come here looking for my personal sob story, so now I'll just leave you to read Chapter 2 in peace now, even if it is kinda short. Please enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Another Side**

**~Jaden's Point of View~**

Like the rest of the audience, I too had a hard time believing the outcome of the duel at first. My sister had won; she had actually beaten Zane—the best duelist on campus! But, believe it or not, that wasn't the thing that surprised me the most. What really blew my mind was Crystal, or at least how she was acting anyway. She looked so… so _happy_. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen Crys smile that much during a duel before!

Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing my little sis in such high spirits; it just surprised me a little at first considering how she was only a few months ago…

*********Flashback*********

"C'mon, Crystal, _please_!?" I begged my sister for probably the umpteenth time in only the past five minutes.

"Big brother, do I have to?" Crystal asked reluctantly, walking into yet another room of the house as she continued to try and avoid me. For some reason, she seemed to be in a particularly bad mood today. "I don't even understand why you're so dead-set on dueling me today anyway, Jaden. I mean, you're leaving for that Duel Academy place in just a few days, aren't you? You'll probably get to duel anytime you want then..."

"Yeah, but I can't wait that long!" I replied as I chased her down into the living room for the third time that day. Breaking into a sprint, I managed to pass in front of her and blocked her path so she couldn't get away this time. "And besides, me leaving for Duel Academy is one of the reasons I wanna duel you, Crys. Since we won't be able to see each other for a while, this could be our last chance to get our game on together 'til then!"

I saw Crystal tense up a little as my words finally sunk in. "I know that, Jaden. But still, if we duel you know I'll probably just end up hurting you like always, big brother…" She looked away after that, her gaze falling to the floor.

I frowned a little then, knowing full well what Crystal was worried about. Like always, Crys didn't want to duel because she was still afraid her powers would end up getting out of hand again. See, I guess my sister is what you would call "different." Although neither of us knew how or why exactly, Crystal had these pretty unique abilities that let her do a lot of things other people couldn't, and one of them apparently involved being able to bring all her cards to life both inside and outside of duels which would actually be pretty darn cool if it wasn't for the fact that they usually ended up causing serious damage to everything nearby…

But still, that was no reason for her to be completely against dueling! To Crystal, dueling was nothing but a hassle and a burden, but just once I wish I could show her that she was wrong and make her see how much fun duels could really be.

"Oh, who cares about that?" I exclaimed, completely blowing off her concerns. "Sure, I know you still have a hard time controlling your powers, but that still doesn't change the fact that you're one of the best Duelists I know, Crys! And besides, it's not like you've ever hurt anyone on purpose, right?"

"R-right, but even so…" she trailed off again, still seeming a little unsure about what to do.

"Listen, Crystal," I told her, resting my hands on the rounds of her shoulders, "I know it's hard, but the truth is you're never gonna get any better or be able to move forward if you're too afraid to even try."

Crystal finally took her eyes off the hardwood floor, now staring up at me again with a surprised look on her face. "Wow, big brother… I sure didn't expect something that deep coming from _you_," she said, amazed.

"Hey! I have my moments every now and then," I exclaimed, pretending to sound offended, though really I was just glad that it seemed like Crys was finally starting to listen to me. "Anyway… So how 'bout it, sis? Just one duel? Please?"

Crystal rolled her eyes and groaned a little, at last coming to the conclusion that I wasn't going to let this dueling thing go anytime soon. Finally caving in, she sighed and said, "Oh, fine, Jaden—you win. I guess I'll duel you if it really means _that _much to you..."

"Yeah!" I cheered; stoked that I was finally going to get to duel today. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get our game on, Crys!"

* * *

Once we had both gotten our Duel Disks from our rooms, Crystal and I met outside in the backyard to have our duel.

"So are you ready to throw down, Crys?" I asked, activating my Duel Disk with no hesitation.

"Isn't that why we're out here?" was her reply as she activated her Disk as well.

"Then let's get started!" I grinned. "Why don't you go ahead and make the first move, little sis?"

"Well, okay… If you insist, Jaden," she said meekly as she drew her first card and added it to her hand. After that, Crystal just stared at her cards for a while, biting her bottom lip and seeming really nervous about something.

"Uh, you okay over there, Crystal?" I asked a few minutes later after she still failed to make a move.

"Of…of course I am!" she yelled back, though still a little flustered. "I was just thinking; that's all! If you want my move, here it is: I summon Axe Dragonute in Attack Mode!"

Just like that, this bipedal black and purple dragon wielding a giant medieval axe appeared on Crystal's side of the field, roaring loudly as its body was suddenly surrounded in a deep black aura (ATK 2000/ DEF 1200).

"Oh, not again…!" Crystal cried out in aggravation at the sight of that light around her dragon—a clear indicator that her powers had once again materialized her monster for real.

"Hey, don't sweat it, Crys!" I tried encouraging her. "It's cool! Just keep going on with your turn."

"But I…" she hesitated, obviously still fretting over the whole thing. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath and sighed. "Whatever. I place two cards facedown and end my turn." The image of two Set cards appeared near Crystal's feet as her turn came to an end.

"Alight! That means it's my turn then!" I exclaimed as I drew from the top of my deck.

"Um, hold on, please! I…" Crystal suddenly interjected, but then quickly trailed off back into silence as if she changed her mind.

"Yeah, Crys?" I raised an eyebrow, curious to see what she wanted to say. Was she trying to activate one of those face-downs of hers?

She stared down at the cards at her feet for a while as if she was contemplating about whether to use them or not, but then she merely closed her eyes and shook her head from side to side rapidly. "You know what? Never mind! It was nothing! Just please go on with your turn, big brother..."

"If you say so, sis," I shrugged, still not sure what to make of her outburst. With that, I looked back down at the cards in my hand. A broad grin crossed my face when I saw that not only did I have Elemental Hero Avion, Bustinatrix, Clayman, _and_ Sparkman, but also Fusion Gate as well. Wow! Crystal was sure in for something! "Okay, here it goes! I'll start with this: Fusion Gate!"

As soon as I set the card in my Field Card Zone, a giant circular thunder cloud appeared above the field.

"Fusion Gate allows both of us to fuse monsters without a Polymerization," I took the liberty to inform Crys even though I was sure she already knew what the card did by now. "So now, I can fuse my Avian and Bustinatrix to create Elemental Hero Flame Wingman! And to top that move, I'll also use Fusion Gate to combine Sparkman and Clayman to bring out Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

In two bursts of light, my two pairs of heroes combined. Two fierce Warrior-monsters appeared from the vortex, one a green and black winged warrior with a red dragon's head for one of his arms (ATK 2100/ DEF 1200); the other, a great, round armored giant with static emitting from his fists (ATK 2400/ DEF 1500).

At that moment, I saw Crystal's face get even paler than usual as she stared down my Heroes, her eyes going wide as she realized the situation she was now in.

"Judging from the shocked look on your face, I guess you must know what I'm about to do, huh?" I called over to her. "And speaking of shocks, now I'll activate Thunder Giant's Special Ability! When he's summoned, he can take out a monster whose original Attack Points are less than his which means your Axe Dragonute's history! Go! Vapor Sparks!"

I pointed to Crystal's dragon, which Thunder Giant wasted no time vaporizing with bolts of lightning. Crystal let out a small gasp as her only monster was destroyed.

"And now I can attack you directly! Go, Flame Wingman! Attack with Skydive Scorcher! And, Thunder Giant, you use Voltic Thunder!" I yelled, pumping a fist in the air.

As my Elemental Heroes sprang into action, I really thought Crystal would activate one of her face-downs for sure, but to my surprise, that didn't happen. Instead she just stood there in silence as my monsters simultaneously launched their attacks at her.

"Ahhhhh!" she shrieked as both blasts hit her dead-on, whipping out all of her 4000 Life Points in an instant and sending her flying back a good five feet in the process.

Slowly the thunder cloud from Fusion Gate and the images of all of our cards faded away, indicating that the duel was over. And although I had technically won, it sure didn't really feel like it for some reason...

_Huh, I wonder…_ I thought as I began walking over to where Crystal had landed. She was lying down on her back over in the grass as she just blankly stared up at the autumn sky. Her gaze quickly shifted to me then as I leaned over her. "Well, I guess that's game, sis," I said, offering her a hand.

"Um, yeah…" she muttered as her hand grasped mine and I helped her up. "You were amazing like always, big brother. I mean, beating me in one turn? I guess you really got me there!" Although she laughed a little and even managed to crack a small smile, it all seemed pretty forced and halfhearted to me.

"Yeah, about that… Crystal, let me see those two cards you set earlier." I held out my hand again, this time waiting for her to give me the cards.

Crystal made a grimace and looked off to the side again. "What? Oh, that's not really necessary, is it, big brother? I mean, what does it matter? You won, after all... Isn't that enough?"

She was clearly trying to talk her way out of it, but I wasn't falling for it today. "C'mon." Still with my palm open, I twitched my fingers forward a little so Crys would get the hint to fork over those cards.

Realizing she had no chance of winning this little standoff, she sighed dejectedly as she finally relinquished the two cards that had still been in her Duel Disk.

My eyes went wide and my mouth hung open a little in astonishment as I stared down at Crystal's two Traps: Ring of Destruction and Barrel Behind the Door.

_I knew it…_ I thought with a twinge of disappointment. Just like I figured, Crystal really _had_ let me win the duel just now.

"Crystal…" I started, looking over at her again. "If you had played these cards any time during my turn, you could have won!"

It was true. If Crystal had activated Ring of Destruction during the duel, she could have used it to destroy one monster on the field, and due to its effect, both players would have taken damage equal to the destroyed monster's Attack Points. But since Crystal also had Barrel Behind the Door, she could have chained it to Ring of Destruction to negate the damage she would have taken and inflicted it to me instead. Since all of our monsters had an Attack greater than 1900, had she had done all that, I would have taken at least 4000 points of Effect Damage and lost.

Crystal's mauve eyes darkened as she suddenly took the cards back into her possession in a fury. "Yeah, and if I had done that, you would have gotten hurt for sure, big brother!" she snapped at me a little. "Is that what you want, Jaden? To be stuck in a stupid hospital instead of attending your _precious _Duel Academy?" There was some bitterness in her voice when she said that last part. "But then again, maybe I should have let all of that happen, because at least then… At least then you wouldn't be leaving me!"

With tears now streaming down her face, Crystal suddenly dropped down on her knees as she covered her face with her hands and continued to cry.

And there it finally was: the reason Crystal had seemed to be in such a bad mood all day… She was still upset about me leaving home in a few days.

I knelt down beside her then, placing my hands on her shoulders once again. "Hey, it'll be okay, Crys," I told her, trying my best to comfort her. "I mean, it's not like I'll be gone forever, you know..."

"Yeah, but I'm sure it'll still _feel_ like forever…" I thought I heard Crystal mutter to no one in particular.

I let out a loud sigh and scratched the back of my head in exasperation. Man, sometimes it was really hard trying to get through to this girl! "Well, you know, Crystal, if you really didn't want us to get separated, you could have applied for Duel Academy with me when I asked you if you wanted to go. I'm sure you would have gotten in, no problem."

"What? And have _another_ group of strangers rightfully come to fear and hate me after I inevitably hurt someone with my powers during a duel? No thanks…" Crystal looked up at me again as she whipped the tears from her eyes. "Listen, Jaden… I'm sorry for always being such a crybaby and making you worry about me all the time. It's pretty childish and selfish of me, really…"

She paused for a moment as she gently held one of my hands in both of hers. "But that's why I want you to forget about me and just do whatever makes you happy, big brother. Go to Duel Academy, have a blast, and do your very best to become the next King of Games like you've always dreamed of, Jaden."

"Crystal… Are you sure?" I couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"Of course," she said with a small, reassuring smile. "As long as you're happy, I'll be just fine, big brother. Never forget that, okay?" With that said, Crystal then simply rose back up on her feet and gracefully walked back into the house without another word, leaving me alone with only my thoughts.

When she had gone, I sighed and ran my fingers through my head again, not sure of what to make of Crystal's behavior at all. I knew she wasn't being completely honest with herself about being okay with me leaving, but at the same time I could tell that she really did feel bad about the mere idea of her holding me back in some way. Still, I really wish she wouldn't think like that, though. I mean, even if she was a little too fragile for her own good sometimes, I would never think of her as a burden or anything…

Flopping down in the grass on my back, I stared up at the sky as I thought about what to do. I felt pretty bad about leaving Crys behind, but I knew that she would probably only end up feeling even more guilty if I decided to stay because of her.

I guess the only thing I could really do was go to Duel Academy like I planned and hope that Crystal really would be okay like she said she would. Not wanting to think too much about it anymore, I just got back up and started walking back into the house as well.

*********End of Flashback*********

Compared to back then, Crystal really did seem different somehow. But that wasn't the only thing I noticed… I was also pretty surprised to see that she had made it through the whole duel without accidentally hurting her opponent.

Wait, so did that mean Crystal had finally leaned to control her powers? If so, that was great! After all, Crystal's abilities had always been something that she struggled with in the past and hated them because of it, so I knew how much finally getting a handle on them must mean to her.

By this point, the whole crowd had come out of their shock and erupted with applause as they cheered for my sister. I smiled then and started cheering for her, too. "Yeah! Way to go, Crystal!" I exclaimed as I jumped out of my seat and began running down to the duel field without a second thought.

My friends seemed a bit taken aback by my sudden outburst. "Wait, Jaden, do you actually _know_ that girl?" Alexis asked in surprise.

"Aw, wait up, Jay!" Syrus called as he and the others began running down after me.

* * *

**Misha: Well, again, sorry if this one somehow seemed short, but that's all I was able to come up with right now, all things considered. Mainly I just wanted this chapter to show a bit of the relationship Crystal and Jaden have with each other and to shed a bit more light on Crystal's backstory (though I'm still not sure if I'm being clear at this point or not…) **

**Also, I just really wanted to show how badass Jaden's Hero deck can really be if that wasn't obvious already. I mean, FTKs and OTKs are the coolest, aren't they? Oh, but sorry if I made Jaden seem… smarter than usual or anything, but I just refuse to believe that he could be completely clueless about **_**everything**_** all of the time, you know? **

**But anyway, since I'm pretty drained right now, I'll just end things here. Please remember to rate and comment, but just no flames, okay? Later, guys.**


	3. Chapter 3: First Impressions

**Misha: Hello~! Sorry if I kept you waiting a long time for this, but instead of constantly writing in my free time like I planned, I got a little distracted and had been using most of my time making wayfinders for no real reason except the fact that they're awesome and I suddenly wanted some (Oh, and I think they turned out pretty good by the way). I mean, who knew shrink plastic and a heat gun were so entertaining to mess around with? Do any of you people out there even know what a wayfinder is though? I would think of you as super cool and awesome if you did! (Also, if you're interested, you can click the link to my deviantART page and see what they look like for yourself.)**

**Oh, and I forgot to say before, but thanks to all of you have commented, followed, and/or marked this story as a favorite so far. Your comments have been really helpful in making me want to write more! And yet, it also makes me a little nervous because I hate it if I don't end up living up to people's expectations… But then again, I **_**am**_** mainly writing this story just because I feel like it, so… **

**Ah! Never mind my stupid tangents! **

**Anyway, here's Chapter 3, so please enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own **_**Yu-Gi-Oh! GX**_** or any of its characters (however the OCs are mine).****All other rights belong to Kazuki Takahashi & co.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: First Impressions**

**~Crystal's Point of View~**

"Yeah! Way to go, Crystal!" I heard someone yell out somewhere from the stands, causing my head to perk up immediately.

_That voice…_ I thought as my eyes began to scan the bleachers up and down, desperately trying to find the owner of that voice. _It sounds like…_

And that's when I saw him. Running down one of the aisles and towards me was a boy in a red blazer with a messy mane of chocolate-orange colored hair and chocolate brown eyes. It was Jaden! There was a group of four people running behind him as well, but I really couldn't care less about them. All that mattered to me was Jaden.

I smiled when I saw him, ecstatic to see my brother after so long. "Jaden!" I exclaimed as I took off towards him.

"Hey, Crys!" he waved when there was only about ten feet separating us. That was still too far away for me, though.

"Jaden, Jaden, Jaden!" I cried out again as I actually leapt forward into the air in order to close the gap between us quicker. I think I might have overshot the jump though, because I essentially ended up landing on him, causing both of us to fall back on the floor with him under me. I guess Jaden was lucky that I wasn't all that heavy… "Oh, you don't know how happy I am to see you, dear big brother!" I practically squealed as I smiled down at him.

"It's really nice to see you too, sis," Jaden said, returning my smile. "Still, do you think you can get off me now? This is getting a little… uncomfortable…"

I blinked a few times and then blushed heavily when I noticed that I was still on top of him. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Still a little embarrassed, I quickly jumped off of him before proceeding to help him back up.

"Thanks," Jaden said once he was back on his feet. "But, Crystal, just what _are_ you doing here anyway?"

"I'm here to see you, of course!" I replied like it was obvious. "See, Mom and Dad haven't been home a whole lot lately again, so I've been pretty much all by myself for months now. I know I said I'd be fine by myself, but all that time alone made me realize just how much I missed you, Jaden, so that's why… That's why I decided to come here!"

"Oh, so that's the reason…" Jaden grinned sheepishly, as if he was a little embarrassed that I would come all this way just to see him. He really shouldn't be that surprised, though. After all, I would do just about anything for him…

"Hey, but I wanted to ask you something, Crys—" Jaden started to say but was interrupted when that group that had been following him finally caught up, running up to where we were.

"Hey, what gives, Jay?" one of them asked after he caught his breath. He was a short kid dressed in a red blazer just like the one Jaden was wearing, and had a mass of aqua-colored hair and two timid grey eyes with glasses. "Why did you run off like that before? And how do you know her?" He pointed a finger at me suddenly which ended up making me flinch.

"Yeah, is she your girlfriend or something?" another one added. This guy looked to be older than the rest of them, with a bigger bulk and a face that resembled a koala's. His hair and his eyes were black and his attire was similar to that of the short kid's, only the colors were reversed so that his blazer actually looked more white than red.

"Well, Jaden? _Is_ she your girlfriend?" the only female in the group asked, or rather demanded. For some reason, she seemed to become quite upset after uttering the word 'girlfriend.' She wore a tight white and blue top and a short blue skirt, equipped with blue boots and long, fingerless gloves, and had long dirty-blonde hair and beautiful hazel eyes. And right now those pretty, little eyes of hers were glaring right at me. If I had to take a wild guess, I don't think she was too keen about the idea of Jaden having a girlfriend… But why would she care about that anyway? If anything, that was _my_ job.

"I must say, I'm interested to know as well," the last boy remarked in a British accent as he crossed his arms. He had an angular face, black slicked-back hair, and grey eyes. Unlike the other two guys in red, he was dressed in a yellow blazer instead.

I stared at the lot of them for a moment, feeling somewhat vexed. Were these Jaden's new friends? I really didn't like the fact that there was so many of them... After all, the more friends Jaden had meant the less time he would have to spend with me!

Yes, I know can get a bit… possessive when it comes to my brother. It's a bad habit of mine that has actually gotten me into trouble a few times in the past with a certain demonic spirit that used to hang around Jaden when we were kids… Man, was I ever glad when Jaden decided to send her away into the darkness of space and eventually forgot all about her… Oops! My apologies—I'm getting off topic here…

Jaden seemed to be getting a little flustered from his friends' bombardment of questions. "What? No, no! It's nothing like that!" Jaden yelled, waving his hands in front of his face. "See, Crystal is—"

"Wait, Jaden," I interjected suddenly; cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. "If you don't mind, please allow me try to introduce myself this time…"

"Uh, sure," Jaden shrugged, not seeming to have a problem with that at all.

I turned my attention back to Jaden's little posse. "Hello. In case you didn't catch it the first few times dear Jaden yelled it, my name is Crystal. Please make sure that you all commit it to memory," I said as I bowed to them all formally. "How do Jaden and I know each other, you ask? Well, let's just say that we go way, _way_ back. We're like this..." Right then, I crossed my middle and index finger of my left hand and even linked one of my arms around Jaden's to make my point on how close we were. "In fact, we once even spent nearly nine months pressed up against each other as close as humanly possible in a very dark place!"

From the shocked and rather disturbed expressions on all of their faces, I figured that they must have taken that last comment of mine the wrong way. But that was okay though considering that _was_ kind of what I was going for. Why? Well, let's just say it was because every now and then I kind of felt like messing with people that I wasn't too particularly fond of…

Still, after I decided my joke had gone on long enough, I waved off their concerns and said, "I take it from the look on your faces that you must have misunderstood me, but I assure you, it's really not what you think. See, the truth is I'm Jaden's sister."

"Sister?!" all four gawked, seeming more shocked than a few seconds ago when they still thought I was Jaden's girlfriend.

"That's right," I nodded. "See, we're twins, hence my little 'joke' a few moments ago…"

"Ohhh…" they all sighed in relief as everything I told them finally sunk in.

"Now that you mention it, I guess you two _do_ kinda look alike… if you squint really hard…" the short kid said, muttering that last part to himself, as he quickly glanced back and forth from me to Jaden a few times. "But, Jay, why didn't you ever tell us that you had a sister?"

"Heh heh… Well, you guys never asked," Jaden laughed, scratching the back of his head.

All of his friends actually face faulted after hearing that comment, apparently unable to believe how Jaden could overlook something like that.

As for me, I just quietly laughed to myself, glad to see that Jaden hadn't changed a bit. Sure, he could be a little forgetful at times, but that was just one of the things that made him who he was.

"Um, so, big brother… Are these… your friends?" I asked as I pointed a finger at the motley crew, trying my best not to sound annoyed.

"Oh, yeah! I guess I should introduce you, huh?" Jaden grinned as he pulled me closer to them. "Crys, these are my good buddies Syrus, Chemley, Alexis, and Bastion," he said, pointing to short stuff, koala-face, blondie, and the Brit all in that order.

I stared at them for a while again, still rather unsure if I really liked any of them just yet. Pretending that I did in the meantime was probably the best way to go, though. "It's very… 'nice' to meet you all," I finally forced myself to say, giving them a brief nod in acknowledgement.

Now I _think_ that they all each gave their own versions of 'likewise,' but I admit I'm not sure since I didn't really pay them too much attention…

"Wow, Crystal! I still can't believe that you actually beat _the_ Kaiser!" Jaden exclaimed suddenly. "And you made it look so easy, too!"

_Kaiser?_ I thought to myself in confusion. I guess he must have been talking about Zane since he was the one I had dueled. Was 'Kaiser' the title Zane had gotten from being the top Duelist in the Academy or something? Oh, God, I really hope I didn't accidentally dethrone him or anything by winning just that one duel. That wasn't what I wanted at all…

"What… what are you talking about, Jaden?" I stammered out, quickly trying to play down the whole thing. "It wasn't anything like that, really. I mean, in all honesty, the only reason I even won was because I just got lucky in the end there..."

"You're not giving yourself enough credit," another voice suddenly came from behind me. I spun around instantly when I realized that it belonged to Zane. He was walking up to where I was. "Luck had nothing to do with it. You won because you're a talented Duelist, Crystal."

I felt my face begin to burn slightly after his compliment. "Oh, th-thank you…" I finally managed to answer once I had found my voice again. "You were great as well. No, better than great. You were absolutely _amazing_, Zane. I'm actually… really glad I had the chance to duel you..."

"Yeah, same here," Zane admitted, and I don't know if I was hallucinating or not, but once again I thought I saw the upper corners of his lips turned upward, as if making a little smile. And at _me_, too.

For a moment I thought I was going to collapse to the ground in a faint, though I truly had no idea why.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around, Crystal." And with that, Zane turned his back and slowly walked off in the other direction towards the exit of the arena.

"Yeah, sure…" I muttered dreamily as I watched him go; my head pounding from hearing the sound of my own heartbeat banging the wall of my chest over and over again. Why did my heart keep doing that? Maybe I was I developing one of those arrhythmias…?

"Hey, Crys, are you feeling alright? Your face is all red," I heard Jaden say. "Do you have a fever or something?" He put one of his hands to my forehead then, attempting to see if I really did feel warmer than usual.

That brought me back to reality. "Huh?" I looked over and noticed that Jaden and the others were still around. I couldn't believe I had almost forgotten that they were all even there. Also realizing that Jaden had yet to take his hand off my forehead, I quickly removed it yet still held onto his hand for a while. I always liked holding Jaden's hand whenever I could. "Oh, I'm just fine, big brother. Really," I answered at last, giving him a small smile.

"Wow, Crystal, you must really be something else," Syrus spoke up then. "I mean, my big bro hardly _ever _gives compliments like that!"

"…" Instead of commenting, I just stared at the aqua-haired boy strangely for several seconds. Did he just say that Zane was his brother? As in, they were related? Now that I think about it, Zane did mention that he had a younger brother, but I would have never guessed it to be _this_ kid. I mean, they didn't look or seem very much alike… But then again, I suppose the same thing could be said about Jaden and me, so I guess it wasn't really my place to judge…

Before anything else could be said, Chancellor Sheppard, Crowler, and a man I had never seen before walked onto the field.

The new guy, most likely a teacher, was pale-skinned and a little bony, with long black hair tied into a loose ponytail. A pair of square wire-rimmed glasses sat upon his angular face, in front of his two slits for eyes. He was dressed in a white long-sleeved collared shirt, long black pants, and a loose black necktie hanging from his neck. You know, for a teacher he looked pretty casual.

But what really surprised me was what the guy was holding in his arms: a cat! It was a real fat kitty with stubby legs and a pudgy face. Its fur was tan, with dark brown strips on its back, and it had a long, swishing tail.

He must be a real cat-lover, I thought. But then again, I could see his reasons why. After all, cats were just _so_ adorable! Even that little chubby one there was pretty cute. Oh, I'm sorry... I'm getting off topic _again_, aren't I?

"Well, Crystal, that was quite a duel," Sheppard said as I turned to face him. "What's even more impressive is that you won. Good job. You've passed your Evaluation Duel. Now for the matter of your dorm…"

"Well, if you ask me, I think you should stick her in Slifer with her slacker of a brother," Crowler muttered to himself, though I ended up hearing it anyway.

Although I still thought he was kind of a jerk, I sort of liked his idea. "Heh, not a bad thought, Dr. Crowler," I said with a smirk. Turning my attention back to the chancellor, I asked, "Um, Chancellor Sheppard, I know I read in the school handbook that female students are normally automatically placed in Obelisk, but do you think it would be alright if I started out in Slifer instead? I mean, that's where transfer students usually go anyway, right?"

"Uh, Crystal… Not like Slifer isn't cool and all, but you do know it's the lowest dorm, right?" Jaden whispered to me then.

"I figured as much, but I really don't care about any of that if it means I can be a little closer to you, big brother," I told him, taking a second to flash a smile his way before I gazed back at the chancellor. "Um… So what do you say?"

Sheppard smiled down at me. "Well, it is a little unorthodox, but hey, if it's Red you want, who am I to stand in your way?" He then turned to look at the guy with the cat. "What do you think, Professor Banner? Do you have room in the Slifer dorm for one more?"

Banner stroked the head of his cat thoughtfully before answering. "Hum… Yes, I do believe we have a spare room that Crystal is more than welcome to stay in if she'd like. Isn't that right, Pharaoh?"

The cat, who I figured was Pharaoh, let out a lazy meow in response which I was hoping meant something along the lines as a yes.

"Then that settles it," Sheppard started. "Crystal, from this moment on you'll be in Slifer Red."

I smiled a little and bowed to the teachers to show my appreciation. "Great. Thank you all so much."

* * *

Well, even with my dorm assignment now taken care of, there was the still the matter of actually getting there. And let me tell you, the task would have been a hell of a lot easier if I didn't have such a damn heavy load to tote all the way there.

At the moment, I was doing my best to drag an overstuffed suitcase across the dirt path that lead to the Slifer dorms while struggling with my other possessions as well: Strapped to my back was a guitar case; over my right shoulder, I slung the holder for my portable piano; and in my right hand, I clenched onto a violin case for dear life.

"Uh, Crystal… Are you sure you don't want some help carrying any of that?" Jaden sweat-dropped when he saw the fatigued look on my face as I struggled to move forward. He and, for some strange reason, the rest of his friends had decided to accompany me to my dorm room. I guess they must not have had anything else better to do… A few of them had asked before if I wanted any help carrying my things, but I immediately denied their request since I didn't feel like inconveniencing anyone and having to owe them anything later on.

"I'm… I'm fine, big brother," I panted a little as I slowly but surely pressed onwards. "After all, if I made it to the train station and then… to the airport lugging all this stuff by myself, I think I can… make it a little further without any help..."

"Well, okay then. Whatever you say, Crys," Jaden shrugged as he and the others continued to walk a few paces behind me. Somehow I bet they were all expecting me to keel over from exhaustion at any second…

Thankfully that didn't happen, however, because after several more minutes we _finally_ made it to the Slifer dorms. And when I saw it, I have to say that I was a little shocked. That is, I was shocked that the Red dorms hadn't crumbled or rot to the base. There couldn't be more than twenty rooms in the puny building. In fact, I would have probably failed to see the building entirely if its red roofs didn't shine in the late afternoon sun. The structure was only two stories high with a set of rickety stairs that joined the ground floor to the second. Yes, it certainly wasn't much to look at… But on the bright side, at least it had a beautiful view of the ocean behind it!

Anyway, the room I was assigned to was apparently room 204 which I guess meant it was on the second floor. Much like the outside, the inside of the dorm wasn't much to look at either. The room was rather small, but I wouldn't say it was _too_ bad. It had beige walls, one window with blackout curtains, shabby carpets, a triple bunk bed in a corner, two desks with two swivel chairs, a sink and small stove near to the door, and a small, wooden tea table next to a bookshelf.

"Oh, thank God I finally made it!" I sighed in relief as I stumbled into the room. Eager to literally get some weight off of my shoulder, I quickly unloaded all of my belongings and placed them on the bottom mattress of the bunk bed.

"Um, well thanks for helping me find my way here, you guys," I said, turning to the others and giving them a brief, obligatory smile.

"No problem," Jaden grinned. "Though, we still could have gotten here a whole lot faster if you'd have let us help with your stuff…"

"I told you I could do it on my own, big brother, and I did… So there," I pouted, sticking out my tongue at him momentarily.

"Uh, I don't mean to pry or anything, but what's in all those bag anyway?" Syrus asked suddenly, pointing to the cases on the bed.

"Hum? Well, they're instruments, of course," I replied like it was obvious, which it kind of was. I mean, what else would you put in a guitar-shaped bag?

"And you really play all of those?" Chumley asked. "Sounds like a lot of work…"

I opened my mouth to say something, but Jaden ended up beating me to it. "She sure does! I don't know anyone who can play as good as Crys," he grinned. "What's that word Mom and Dad are always calling you, Crys? A proda-something…?"

"You mean a prodigy?" Bastion offered.

"Yeah, that's it! She's also a pretty good singer, too," Jaden told the others.

By this point, my face was completely red from both anger and humiliation. Why on earth was he bringing all that stuff up? "J-Jaden! Stop saying things like that! You're… you're embarrassing me," I cried out, trying to get him to shut up, or at the very least I wanted to make him stop talking about me.

Now either Jaden didn't hear a word I had just said, or he had just simply decided to ignore me, because the next thing he said really almost made me die from embarrassment: "Oh, I have an idea, Crys! Why don't you play something right now?"

"What?!" From the way I reacted to that suggestion, you would have thought I was struck by lightning or something. I stumbled back a few steps and actually ended up falling down on my backside. Great… Like I needed anything else to make me seem any more awkward… "Oh, no; I couldn't possibly do that! I mean, I'm sure no one wants to hear me make such a racket anyway…" I muttered, trying my best to talk my way out of this mess.

"Actually, that sounds pretty interesting," Alexis smiled.

"Yeah," Syrus agreed. "Do you think you could play something?"

I felt my hands go clammy as a small lump developed in my throat. "Um… Well, I don't know…" I said quietly, still really not wanting to go through with it. I told you, crowds (and people in general for that matter) weren't really my thing…

"Oh, c'mon, Crys. Just one song? Please?" Jaden asked, giving me that face he knew I had a hard time saying no to.

Although I did try my best to resist 'the face,' I'm regrettably really weak when it comes to denying my brother, so I ended up caving in in a matter of moments. "Okay, fine! Whatever! I guess I can play something…" I sighed in defeat, already walking over to my bags to pick out an instrument to play but beginning to wish that I had left them at home now...

Since it was much too difficult to sing and play the violin at the same time, I quickly ruled that out, and because I didn't feel like making that much noise right now, I abandoned the thought of playing my guitar, too. So that just left my keyboard. Yeah, I guess that works, I thought as I took the keyboard from its carrier, laid it out on one of the desks, and plugged it in an outlet since the battery wasn't charged.

When I was more or less all set up, I turned my attention back to the others, who had taken it upon themselves to sit around that little, wooden tea table. "Um, so… Anyone have any ideas what I should play, exactly…?" I asked hesitantly.

"Anything," they all seemed to say at once.

"O-okay then," I stammered. Still feeling a little jittery, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and then just started to play the first thing that came to mind:

"_My Soul, Your Beats"_ (*)

_I open my eyes to the light of the sun  
I am still half asleep  
I straighten out my tie  
And I'm out the door  
Now I walk tall and with a feeling of pride  
Into this class of mine  
It's just an average day  
Like every other day  
The current pushes me on  
As if I'm caught in the wind_

_I thought I heard its resonance_  
_I even thought I felt it deep inside_  
_And now it trembles within my heart like music_  
_I thought the time had finally come_  
_Watching the stars above me fade away_  
_And vanish in the dark_  
_I waved them goodbye_  
_And said with a smile,_  
_"I'm happy for you."_

_Sweeping the hall in the late afternoon_  
_I feel a little strange_  
_Although the clock ticks on, I don't feel the change_  
_Sunset will come and the sunrise as well_  
_Day will lead into night_  
_But I have lost my will_  
_It's like I'm standing still_  
_The dust that I sweep away_  
_Just piles higher like snow_

_I thought that it would wait for me_  
_I even thought I heard it calling out_  
_And now I tremble because my heart is yearning_  
_I thought it would be found at last_  
_When all the memories that I have lost_  
_Awaken finally_  
_When I have them back_  
_The curtain will fall_  
_On this endless tale_

_All of my thoughts undone_  
_I just began to run_  
_You grabbed onto my hand_  
_And it had begun_  
_Yesterday's in the past_  
_Tomorrow is coming fast_  
_It's the simplest truth there is_  
_I see_  
_And it brings me ecstasy_

_I thought I heard its resonance_  
_I even thought I felt it deep inside_  
_And now it trembles within my heart like music_  
_I thought the time had finally come_  
_Watching a thousand mornings passing by_  
_Each bringing a new day_  
_I thought that it would wait for me_  
_I even thought I heard it calling out_  
_And now I tremble, because my soul is shaking_  
_I thought it had been found at last_  
_Watching the last day finally fade away_  
_Like millions of dreams_  
_I waved it goodbye_  
_And said with a smile,_  
_"I'm grateful to you."_

Although I ended up getting nervous again halfway through, causing my voice to break a few times and me to fumble over the keys a little, when I finished, the others still decided to clap for me anyway.

"Wow, that was pretty good," Alexis commented.

"Yeah, you have a really nice voice," Syrus added with a smile.

Though I tried not to, my face flushed in embarrassment after all that since I wasn't really used to too many people commenting on my music. "Um, thanks," I managed to get out. "But I'm really nothing special when you think about it…"

"You know, Crys, there is such a thing as being overly modest," Jaden rolled his eyes, seeming kind of annoyed that I had shot myself down once again.

I pursed my lips and glared at him a little after hearing that. "Well, sorry, Jaden, but I really don't see what the big deal is," I pouted. "I mean, you can play the piano too after all…"

"Huh? He can?" all his friends blurted out at once, suddenly glancing over at Jaden in surprise.

Oh, so it looks like Jaden didn't mention _that _to his friends either... Not surprising, considering how Jaden pretty much hated playing piano. Our mother made us take lessons when we were little, and while I stuck with it and then some over the years, Jaden always avoided playing whenever he could since it really had nothing to do with Duel Monsters…

This time it was Jaden's turn to be embarrassed. His cheeks flushed dark red as he quickly retorted with, "Well, yeah, I guess—but it's not like I'm as good as Crystal or anything!"

"Heh… Now who's the one being modest?" I teased him. "Well, I for one think that dear Jaden here plays quite lovely," I took the liberty in telling his friends. "Oh, and don't get me started on his—Ah!"

Before I had the chance to finish my sentence, I was cut off when Jaden suddenly pulled me off the chair I was sitting on and started tickling my stomach in an attempt to keep me quite. "Okay, that's enough of that, sis," Jaden told me as I fought the urge to burst out in laughter from my abdomen being constantly poked. Since I was very ticklish, however, I ended up erupting in giggles in a matter of seconds.

Meanwhile, the other four just sweat-dropped as they stared at Jaden and me, probably wondering if they were witnessing a sibling squabble that was better left off in private…

"He-he… Alight, Jaden! Alight!" I cried out in-between giggles. "Cut it out already and I promise not to tell them anything else, okay?"

At that, Jaden finally let up on the 'torture' which allowed me to pull away from him and return to a sitting position on the carpet.

We glared at each other mildly for some time before we both burst into laughter.

That's the way it always was: even if Jaden and I did get mad at each other, it never really lasted for very long.

Jaden was the one who broke the laughter first. "Well, that was fun, but seriously though, Crystal… Try having a little more confidence in yourself, okay?"

I looked over at him. "Well, I guess I can try, but I'm still not making any promises," I said simply.

"I guess that's close enough," Jaden sighed.

"Wow, is it that late already?" Alexis commented suddenly as she stared over at the clock that was on one of the desks.

I looked too and saw that it read 6:30 p.m. Crap, I guess it was getting pretty late…

"I guess I should be heading back to my dorm now, It's nearly curfew," the blonde said, rising to her feet.

"Yes, I suppose I be returning to my dorm as well," Bastion said as he too got up.

"Yeah, and besides it's almost time for dinner, and tonight's grilled cheese night!" Chumley added; seeming a little too excited about tonight's dinner menu if you ask me… He and Syrus got up from the carpet as well.

It would be a lie if I said I was sorry to see them go. "Oh, okay. Good rid—I mean, 'good bye'! It was nice meeting you today!" I replied with a wave, quickly correcting myself before I said something inappropriate.

After having to listen to all of their farewells, they all soon left, leaving only Jaden and myself in the room.

"Well, big brother, your friends seem… 'interesting,'" I said, muttering that last part for lack of a better word.

"Yeah, they're great, aren't they?" Jaden grinned, apparently not catching on to my insincerity this time around. He stared at me suddenly. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot! There was something that I wanted to ask you before, Crys…"

"Um, what is it?" I asked, unable to help feeling a little bit nervous.

"Well, back there during your duel I noticed that none of your cards actually ended up hurting your opponent like they normally do," Jaden started as he recalled the events from the duel that took place earlier today. "Does that really mean that you finally learned to control your powers?"

"Um, well kind of…" I admitted shyly. "It's all thanks to this, really." Pulling up my sleeve a little, I showed Jaden the star-shaped mark on my right shoulder.

"Huh? Is that a tattoo?" Jaden asked in surprised and slightly disapproving tone.

"No, of course it's not a tattoo, big brother," I replied, shaking my head. "It's a seal that helps my powers from going all erratic like they normally do."

"A seal, huh?" The brunet scratched the back of his head like he still didn't fully get it. "But when did you learn to do something like that?"

"_He-he! I helped her, of course!"_ Dark Magician Girl blurted out of nowhere as her spirit suddenly appeared in the room out of thin air, nearly giving me a heart attack.

"Whoa! Is that Dark Magician Girl?" Jaden gawked at the sight of her. "I thought I saw you talking to her during the duel, but I kinda thought I was just seeing things!"

"Wait, you can see her too, Jaden?" I asked, a little surprised since I couldn't remember the last time Jaden talked about being able to see a spirit.

"Yep, sure can!" Jaden laughed. "See, I guess you can say that I have a partner of my own."

Seeming to respond to his words, a brown, furry creature with wings suddenly appeared besides Jaden as it let out a cute, little cry. It was a Winged Kuriboh, I soon realized.

Interesting… So it looks like I wasn't the only one to regain the ability to see spirits…

"_Crystal has already told me such great things about you, but still, it's great to finally meet you in-person, Jaden!"_ Dark smiled at him.

"Well, thanks! Same here," Jaden replied, returning her smile. "But what did you mean before about helping Crys?"

"I guess I can explain that," I said, speaking up suddenly before Dark could even attempt a response and embarrass me any further. "See, I guess that it all started a few months ago…"

*********Flashback*********

"I'm home…" I pointlessly declared to no one as stepped into my empty house. The evening sun shone through the windows, giving the house a surreal amber glow. Normally I would have said it looked beautiful, but since it seemed like I had nobody else was around to enjoy it with, the sight of it really just kind of bummed me out.

Realizing that there truly was no one else home, I sighed heavily before taking off my shoes and leaving them, along with my book bag, by the front door. I walked straight to my room and once inside, I changed out of my uniform and then just threw myself down on my bed face-first and closed my eyes.

It had now been two months since Jaden left home to go to that stupid Duel Academy place, but from the way I was feeling, it might as well have been two eternities… Before Jaden left, I know I told him that I would be okay with staying home by myself, but now I was beginning to think that I had given myself too much credit. I mean, I'd hardly describe my current state as 'okay.'

I had never given it much thought before because we've never really been separated until now, but being away from my brother for this long was actually physically _painful_. Yeah, I don't really get it either, but with every passing day of not being able to see Jaden, it just felt like I was slowly coming apart at the seams.

But I had no one to blame but myself, really. If I wasn't such a failure at controlling this awful curse of mine, I would have been able to follow Jaden anywhere without having to worry about causing him or anyone else any problems… But _nooo_… I just _had_ to be a damn, unstable wreck that was better off as a shut-in…

"It's not fair though! Why does it have to be this way?" I ended by yelling out loud in frustration, sick and tired of my pathetic way of life. I rolled over on my side and curled up into a ball. "I wish there was something I could do to be normal… To not have to deal with all this crap anymore…"

"_Well, maybe I can help with that!"_ this bubbly female voice suddenly came from out of nowhere.

"Huh?" Looking from the corner of my eye, I was shocked to see a figure floating there just a few feet away from me. I didn't get that good of a look at it, however, because the next thing I knew, I screamed, jumped off the bed, and bolted under the desk in my room in a poor attempt to hide from whatever it was.

"Ah! No way! Not _another_ demon!" I cried as I shut my eyes tight, hoping the apparition that was now in my room would just go away and leave me alone. Great… First I had to put up with that possessed card Yubel and all the grief she gave me whenever we used to argue over Jaden, and now I had deal with whatever _this_ was. Just my luck…

"_Excuse me? It's great that you can finally see me and all, but did you really just call me a 'demon'?"_ the voice spoke again, though sounding a little annoyed this time. _"Just look at this cute face! Do I look like a demon to you?"_

Although I didn't really want to, since it didn't seem like the ghost was going away any time soon, I eventually crawled out of my hiding place to get a better look at the spirit apparently trying to hold a conversation with me.

When I got a good look at her, I could tell that she really wasn't a demon. Overlooking the fact that she was practically transparent, she otherwise looked like a normal teenage girl. And a strangely familiar one, too. She had fair skin, mid-length blonde hair, green eyes, and was dressed in an odd blue and pink outfit, complete with a blue and pink pointed hat on her head and spiral staff in her hands.

After blinking several times and making sure that I indeed wasn't hallucinating, I finally recognized who she was, and when I did, I totally flipped. "N-no way! You're Dark Magician Girl!" I gawked in astonishment.

"_He-he! Well, it took you long enough to figure it out,"_ she giggled before she winked and stuck her tongue out at me.

"But…but…" I stammered out almost incoherently, still not quite understanding what I was looking at here. "How…?"

"_Oh, come on now, Crystal,"_ Dark Magician Girl smiled at me. _"You already know that you can do some pretty incredible things, so why do you seem so surprised that you're able to see Duel Spirits?"_

My eyes went wide. "What in the world is a 'Duel Spirit'? But more importantly, why are you talking like you know me or something?"

Although I'll admit my tone of voice was awfully rude at that moment, the blonde Spellcaster's smile never went away as she calmly began to explain the situation to me. _"But that's the thing: I _do_ know you, Crystal. I've been watching over you from your deck for a few years now, in fact."_

Huh? So did that mean that a Duel Spirit was like the soul of a Duel Monster's card that was in a person's deck or something? I remember that I did have a Dark Magician Girl card in my deck, but I never thought it had a spirit inside of it or anything! "But if that's true… then why is this only the first time you've ever spoken to me?" I asked her, this time trying to sound a little more polite.

"_Well, I've been trying to communicate with you for a while, but this seems to be the first time you've actually been willing to listen!" _she replied with a twinkle of excitement in her emerald eyes. _"I've heard somewhere before that people are the most open to change after they've hit their lowest point, and I guess it really _is_ true! Isn't that great?"_

"Well, I don't know about it being 'great,' but you're right about one thing: I _have _been feeling pretty down lately, that's for sure…" I muttered as I stared down at the floor. Suddenly remembering something from earlier, I quickly shifted my gaze back on Dark Magician Girl. "Hey, wait… Earlier you said something about being able to 'help' me… What did you mean by that?"

"_Oh, yeah! I did say that, huh?" _Dark Magician Girl laughed, scratching the back of her head.

"Yes, you did. Now what did you have in mind? Can you… That is, do you think you could do something to get rid of my powers?" I asked eagerly, suddenly feeling rather hopeful. Dark Magician Girl was supposed to be a sorceress after all, so I thought maybe she would be able to do something like that.

The somewhat sad expression on her face, however, told me otherwise. _"…Sorry, Crystal, but I'm afraid I can't really do anything like that. I know they still scare you, but the truth is your powers are a part of you, so there's no real way I can just separate them from you…"_

"Oh… I see…" I sighed dolefully, now regretting that I had allowed myself to be optimistic for a second there.

"_Hey, cheer up, Crystal!"_ Dark Magician Girl told me after seeing my glum face. _"Just because I can't get rid of your powers like you wanted doesn't mean I can't help you with controlling them a whole lot better."_

"Huh? You can really do that?" I asked, wide-eyed.

"_Of course!"_ the magician declared with a confidant smile. _"But in order to do something like that, I'm going to need your help too, Crystal. Do you think you're up for that?"_

I nodded fast enough to get whiplash. "Yes—Of course! I'll do anything!" I exclaimed. Did she even really need to ask me though? I mean, I would be up for anything if it meant lifting this burden I had, even if it was just a little bit.

"_Great! Then let's do it!"_ Dark Magician Girl cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

* * *

So after I had completed my breathing exercises (Dark Magician Girl had told me that I need to do those in order to 'clear my mind' or something like that…) and calmed down quite a bit, Dark said that we were just about ready to begin the sealing ritual.

Yes, about that: See, the two of us talked some more and Dark Magician Girl explained to me that my main problem was the fact that I apparently had too much power inside me without any way to channel it correctly. And because I couldn't control it, the darkness would find multiple ways of releasing itself on its own, which usually ended up being through my cards whenever I dueled or through my emotions if I was provoked enough.

Yeah, I still don't really get it either… But anyway, that's why Dark Magician Girl suggested that I'd use some kind of magic seal to keep my powers in check. The seal was apparently supposed to weaken them quite a bit while also acting like some sort of regulator that made it so that my abilities activated only when I actually _wanted _them to.

"_Alright, Crystal. Are you ready?"_ Dark asked me then.

"Yes," I replied, thinking I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

"_Okay, then let's get started!"_ Dark declared before disappearing back into her card momentarily.

Since it turned out that it really wasn't possible for Dark to cast any magic on things in this world while she was in her spirit-form, it looked like I was going to have to conjure her up first.

"Right…" I said as I activated the Duel Disk I had placed on my right arm. "Okay, I summon Dark Magician Girl!" I declared out of force of habit as I placed Dark's card on a Monster Card Zone.

Dark Magician Girl appeared before me once again, though this time no longer transparent, and like all the other monsters I summoned, she was surrounded by a glowing, black aura, meaning that she was there for real.

"Hooray! You did it!" she felt the need to congratulate me, and the next thing I knew, she pulled me into a tight embrace.

Yep, she was really there alight, but right then I kind of wish she wasn't since her hug was making it pretty hard for me to breath. Man, she was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked, I'll give her that.

Though it took a bit of effort, I somehow managed to slip out of her hold. "Um, what was that for?" I asked, still a little red in the face.

"Sorry, but it just seemed like you could really use a hug, you know?" she replied sweetly.

"O…kay…" I muttered, not really sure what else to say to that. "So anyway, what's next?"

"Well, now we can start with putting up that seal I was telling you about," Dark smiled. Raising her staff it in the air, it began to glow a bright pink as a giant emblem that looked an awful lot like the Spellbinding Circle suddenly appeared under our feet.

I couldn't help but gasp a little in awe, not sure if I've ever seen anything quite so mesmerizing before.

"Alright, Crystal, now listen carefully," Dark Magician Girl went on, sounding a bit more serious this time. "This next part may be a bit… uncomfortable, but I need you to stay strong for me, okay?"

Although her words suddenly made me feel a little apprehensive, I just pushed my fear aside as I gave her a stern nod; telling her to go for it.

She nodded back, lifting up her staff again and pointing it at me as its glow changed from a florescent pink to a crimson red.

It was at that moment that I felt a rather agonizing burning sensation on my right shoulder, as if someone was branding me with a hot iron. On top of that, it also felt as though all of the world's gravity was crashing down on me as an invisible force painfully shoved all of the darkness that I had suddenly emitted back inside my body.

I wanted to scream out in agony and tell Dark Magician Girl to make it stop, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be strong, so I just bit down on my tongue in an attempt to keep quiet and suck up the pain.

"Oh, hang in there, Crystal!" Dark encouraged me after seeing my pained expression. "We're almost there!"

Although I tried to hold it back, a few minutes later when that emblem under my feet began to close in around me, somehow making the burning in my shoulder that much worse, I finally let out a loud shriek as the entire room was suddenly enveloped in a bright red light.

* * *

When the light finally died down, I found myself down on my knees, breathing a bit heavily. Not seeing Dark Magician Girl right away, I began looking around for her and soon found that she was still in the room, though now back in spirit-form.

"_There! All done!"_ she smiled sweetly at me. _"You did great, Crystal—I'm super proud of you!"_

"Huh…? So then, it worked?" I asked after I was done catching my breath.

"_Uh-huh! Just look for yourself."_ She pointed at my right shoulder.

Taking her advice and looking down, my gaze soon fell upon a red pentagram-shaped mark branded on my upper arm that I knew hadn't been there before. "Oh, wow…" I gasped in both amazement and disbelief.

"_Pretty cool, huh?"_ Dark asked, seeming pretty pleased of her handiwork. _"It will still take a little while to get used to it, but as long as you don't give the darkness full control, that seal will make it much easier for you to deal with your powers."_

"I understand. But still, thank you so much!" I exclaimed, almost on the verge of tears again, though this time it was out of happiness. Maybe now that this burden of mine had been lifted ever so lightly, perhaps I really would have a chance to be normal like I wanted. At the very least, I figured that it would let me get a little close to Jaden without having to worry about hurting him or anyone else.

"_Oh, but it was my pleasure, really!"_ Dark laughed with a radiant smile. _"So tell me, Crystal, does this mean we can be friends?"_

I nodded and, for probably the first time in months, gave a small but genuine smile. "Sure. I think I'd like that."

*********End of Flashback*********

After that day, I took Dark's advice and worked nonstop trying to control my powers with that seal the best I could. I practiced for weeks on end and when I thought I was finally ready, I decided to transfer to Duel Academy and then—well, and you know the rest…

Once I had finally finished recounting my little story, I noticed that Jaden's eyes had gone slightly wide. "Wow… That's some story," he breathed.

"Heh… Tell me about it…" I agreed as I stared down at the mark on my arm once again. "Um, but Jaden… you're not going to tell your friends or anyone else what I can do, are you? I mean, since I'm pretty sure there's no one else at this school that knows me, I was hoping I can try to start over here, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," Jaden nodded with a smile. "Don't worry, Crys; your secret's safe with me."

I looked back at him. "…Really?"

"Of course," he replied. "Besides, I think you being here may do you some good. I mean, who knows? You might even grow to like dueling a little more!"

To be honest, I don't know if I would go _that_ far, but I decided to be optimistic for my brother's sake. "Yeah, maybe…" I said with a shrug.

"Well, I'm gonna head over to the cafeteria with the others to get some dinner," Jaden stated then. "Are you gonna come too?"

"No, that's alight," I shook my head slightly. "I'm really not that hungry, and besides, I still have a lot of unpacking to do…" I motioned over to the bags on my bed.

"Oh. Well, okay. See ya later then, Crys!" Jaden waved before he exited the room.

"I'll see you tomorrow, big bother!" I cheerfully called after him before the door closed all the way.

Once I was finally alone, I sighed to myself a little as I replayed today's events in my head. All things considered, I suppose I did have a pretty good day. Pushing my thoughts aside, I finally began to unpack my stuff like I said I would. It took me a while, but I eventually got everything to go where I wanted it to. When I had at last finished with all of that, I was pretty spent, so I just decided to get ready for bed.

I admit that I was a little apprehensive to use the dorm's only washroom at first, considering how a bunch of guys used it and all, but I was surprised to find that it was one of the few things in the dorm that was actually pretty well kept.

After I was through washing up, I returned to my room for some much needed rest; falling asleep the instant my head hit the pillow.

* * *

*** NOTE: The lyrics above belong to geekyfandubs (formerly geekymcgeekstein) of Youtube. She is an amazing singer who does wonderful fandubs of some popular anime songs. If you like that kind of stuff, you should so totally look her up. She said on her channel that fans are free to use her lyrics as long as it's for non-profit purposes and that proper credit is given, and that is exactly what I am doing here. Again, I DO NOT own these lyrics or the song. Also, these lyrics were adapted from the original "My Soul, Your Beats" which is performed by Lia with lyrics by Jun Maeda.**

**Misha: Man, this chapter was awfully lengthy (mainly because I just don't know when to stop), and it didn't even have a duel in it! Maybe I'll make that up to you all in the next chapter, but hopefully this will keep you satisfied for now… **

**Anyway, so Crystal finally got to meet Jaden's friends (well, except Chazz, but I'll save him for next time…) but too bad it seems like she has a hard time with wanting to share Jaden with them. I wouldn't say Crystal is really obsessive like Yubel was or anything, but she definitely has some 'big brother worshipping' going on… **

**Also, I'm sorry if me making an OC good at something like music seems overplayed to you or anything, but the way I see it, someone who doesn't spend too much time with other people has to do **_**something**_** to pass the time, you know? (Speaking from experience here, sadly…) And like I said before, since it's my story, I'm just going to include whatever fancies me, so please just bear with me.**

**Hopefully the disclaimer about the lyrics I used will prevent any problems, but if not, could someone please tell me since I'm still kind of new to this thing? (I hope it doesn't though, since I was really hoping to use a few more songs in the future…) Thank you in advance!**

**(Sigh…) Okay, there. Rant officially over. I'll end things here and I'll see you in the next chapter. R & R if you feel like it (and I hope you do since I just love getting your feedback)! Later! **


	4. Chapter 4: vs The Queen of Obelisk Blue

**Misha: Hey, everyone! Again, so sorry if I kept you waiting, but a few weeks ago I had a birthday on July 25****th**** and finally reached a very important age (Just try to guess which one, I dare you!) Anyway, to celebrate, I went and got my parents to help me buy this new Yamaha piano I've been wanting for a while and I decided to break it in by playing my favorite Touhou pieces all the live-long day! Ha ha ha! (Yes, I already I **_**know**_** I need a life… You don't have to remind me.)**

**But moving on… If you've already read the title of this chapter, I think you can more or less guess what's about to go down, right? Though if you can't, that's alright. You'll find out eventually… **

**On a similar topic, if this chapter had a theme song, I think it would have to be "Green-Eyed Jealousy" because, well… Well, just because that was the awesome song I kept listening to and playing when I wrote this chapter since I kind of thought it fit the mood in a way… um… so yeah! (You should totally look up the song if you've never heard it before. Or don't. Whatever floats your boat! Hey… that kind of rhymed!)**

**Anyway, I'll shut up and let you read now, I guess. I'll see you again once you've reached the bottom of the page. Please enjoy this super long chapter! (I know I probably **_**should **_**have split it up somehow, but I was just too lazy~!)**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own **_**Yu-Gi-Oh! GX**_** or any of its characters (however the OCs are mine). All other rights belong to Kazuki Takahashi & co.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Possessive Little Sister vs. the Queen of Obelisk Blue **

If there was one thing you need to know about me, it's that I'm really fond of sleeping. I could actually probably sleep in even longer than Jaden, if you can believe that. And that's exactly what I was doing right now. Because I had the common sense to arrive on the island on a Saturday that meant that today was Sunday, which also meant that I could sleep in all day if I wanted to.

Well, even though snoozing the day away _was_ the plan, someone else had other ideas for me apparently. "Crystal… Hey, Crystal, wake up," a voice called out to me as I suddenly felt someone poke my right flank a few times.

I rolled away from the direction the voice was coming from and pulled the bed sheets over my head. "No. Go away…" I muttered, still pretty much asleep.

"Aw, c'mon, Crys! Even _I_ got up at a decent hour today! The least you could do is get out of bed, too," the voice said again. He was being awfully persistent today...

"Later…" was my brief reply as I shut my eyes even tighter in an effort to go back to sleep.

"Well, later is _now_, so rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" With that, the covers I was hiding under were suddenly yanked off of me, snapping my wide awake in an instant.

Now fully conscious, I sat up and rubbed the last of the sleep from my eyes as I gazed over at the person who had disturbed my once peaceful rest. With little surprise, I found myself staring at Jaden. Normally, I would have been very, _very _upset with the person who dared to interrupt my _sacred slumber_ as I liked to call it, but he was the just about the only exception. "Oh, good morning, big brother," I greeted him with a small but warm smile.

"Morning?" Jaden raised an eyebrow as if I said something silly. "Uh, Crys, you do realize that it's nearly two in the afternoon, right?"

"Huh?" I briefly glanced over at the digital clock sitting on my desk, and sure enough it read 1:30 p.m. "Hum, so it is… Okay, then I suppose I should really say, 'good _afternoon_, big brother!'" I corrected myself, giggling a little.

Jaden just sweat-dropped. "Ha ha…Right…"

"Hey, wait a second… How did you get in here anyway, Jaden?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Well, I did try knocking a few times, but you didn't hear me, of course," he began to explain. "Anyway, then I tried the door and saw that it was open. You really should remember to lock your door, Crys. I mean, who knows who could get in…?"

"You mean besides you?" I remarked somewhat sarcastically, though I did end up blushing a bit, feeling kind of embarrassed that I had forgotten something like that. "Um, so what did you want from me anyway, big brother?"

Jaden flashed me a grin then. "Well, it's just since you're still new here and all, I'd thought I could spend the rest of the afternoon giving you a tour of the island!"

"Huh? You mean I would get to spend the whole day with you…?" I asked, my heart fluttering at the idea of spending the better half of the afternoon alone with Jaden. "That sounds fantastic! I'd love to!"

"Cool. Then I'll just wait for you outside until you're ready," Jaden told me, already heading out the door.

"'Kay~!" I sang excitedly as I immediately jumped out of bed to get ready.

* * *

After all the 'morning' necessities had been taken care of and I was fully clothed, I emerged from my room to meet up with Jaden.

"Okay—I'm ready, big brother!" I declared when I found him hanging around near the outside of the dorms.

"Great, then let's go!" Jaden grinned, already leading the way.

"Um, right," I nodded, following him without a second thought.

"By the way, Crystal… Why are you wearing that?" Jaden asked suddenly as he finally noticed the outfit I had on.

I looked down at my clothes as well. I was wearing a red sleeveless blazer-like top with a big flowing red bow on the back, which I really liked a lot I'll admit, and a black undershirt underneath. I also had on a black miniskirt, mid-thigh-high black boots, and fingerless red gauntlets on my hands.

"What? This?" I asked a bit sheepishly. "Um, well… You see, since no one gave me a Slifer uniform yesterday since I really don't think they make any for girls, I thought this was better than nothing. I mean, it kind of, sort of, maybe looks _slightly_ like the Slifer blazers… a little…" I said, getting less and less confident with every word I uttered during that last sentence there. "W-why do you ask anyway? Do you think it makes me look weird or something?"

Jaden smiled and shook his head. "Not at all, Crys," he told me. "In fact, I think red looks pretty good on you!"

At that comment, I started blushing like crazy; my face probably as red as my jacket. "Gee, thanks, Jaden," I laughed.

"No problem, now let's really get going!" he said, taking me by the hand suddenly and whisking me off to wherever he had in mind.

* * *

So like he said he would, Jaden ended up showing me around nearly the whole island. I got to see where the other dorms were (well, except the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm, since Jaden wasn't allowed there with him being a boy and all…), where the lecture halls were located, and even the school's giant indoor pool.

The last stop was apparently the card shop, which we just then walked into. The store was filled with items any Duelist could hope for, I suppose. There were lots of card packs and box sets for sale, and even an assortment duel magazines and deck cases, among other things.

In the center of the store, there was also this really big cart with question marks painted all around it, and inside, it looked like it was filled with wrapped goods of some kind...

"Big brother, what is that?" I asked, pointing at the receptacle.

Jaden grinned suddenly when he saw the cart. "Oh, yeah—I almost forgot it was sandwich day!"

"Sandwich day?" I cocked my head to the right.

So after that, Jaden explained to me that the bin over there was filled with all kinds of different sandwiches called 'drawbread.' The goal was apparently to test one's drawing skills; picking out a sandwich at random in hopes of drawing something good.

"But the best sandwich by far has to be the Golden Eggwich," Jaden went on to say; his face lighting up with excitement as a mental image of the snack most likely entered his head.

"Golden Eggwich?" I echoed with yet another confused look.

"Yeah. See, once a week, the Academy's golden rooster lays a golden egg that that Ms. Dorothy uses to make this really tasty sandwich. It's awesome!"

I took a second to try to imagine such a thing, but the mindboggling idea of a _rooster_ actually laying an egg just kind of derailed my train of thought… Eventually, I just abandoned the thought altogether and simply uttered, "Oh. Well, that sounds… interesting…"

"I know, right?" Jaden agreed with another one of those smiles of his that I never got tired of seeing. Turning to this old, hefty lady that was behind the store counter, he asked her, "Hey, Dorothy, do you know if anybody's drawn the Golden Eggwich yet?"

The older woman smiled and shook her head. "As a matter of fact, no one has yet, so it looks like you still have a pretty good chance, Jaden. Good luck!"

"Sweetness!" Jaden cheered before looking back at me. "So what do you think, Crys? Do you want to go ahead and try?" He pointed over at the sandwich bin.

I mulled it over for a second before I finally shrugged. "Okay, sure. Why not?" With that, I walked over and reached into the bin, pulling out the first sandwich my fingers happened to touch. Once I had it, I then proceed with unwrapping it to see what was inside.

However, the instant I saw that it had fried shrimp in it, I gasped a little before holding the sandwich out at arm's length, trying to keep it as far away from me as possible without actually just throwing it across the room. See, besides being a vegetarian, I unfortunately happened to be quite allergic to shellfish. Thankfully, I only had a reaction when I ingested the stuff, but when I did, I usually broke out in these really uncomfortable hives right before going into anaphylactic shock. And let me tell you, having your lungs close up on you and nearly dying is _not_ a fun experience…

"What is it?" Jaden asked; a bit alarmed after seeing my reaction.

"Well, it looks like mine has shrimp in it, unfortunately…" I replied quietly.

"Oh, man, that's right… You're allergic to shrimp, aren't you?" he remembered suddenly.

I nodded. "Yeah… I guess I just wasn't very lucky this time around…"

"Hey, no worries, Crys," Jaden reassured me. "If I draw anything good, I'll totally trade with you."

I was going to tell him that he really didn't have to do anything like that, but Jaden had already stuck his hand in the bin and pulled out a sandwich before I even had a chance to open my mouth.

"There; now let's see what I got," he said as he folded back the paper of the wrapped sandwich. And when he did, I suddenly saw this heavenly golden light coming from inside. Call me crazy, but I don't think sandwiches normally glowed like that… right?

On closer inspection, I saw that it was actually just a sunny-side up egg with a golden-yellow yolk. That must have been that Golden Eggwich Jaden was talking about before, I figured.

"Oh, wow… Congratulations, big brother!" I complemented him, very impressed with his good luck.

"Yeah! I knew my drawing skills would be awesome today!" Jaden beamed triumphantly. "Any way… Here you go, Crys!"

I stared at Jaden in confusion as he suddenly offered me the egg sandwich. "What?" I asked, my voice matching my perplexed expression. "But, Jaden… You seemed so excited before about being able to draw that Golden Eggwich. I can't take it. And besides, since you did pick it out, it's only fair that you should be the one that eats it."

"Aw, it's cool, little sis," he insisted as he went ahead and swapped my sandwich with his. "Besides, I love fried shrimp too, so it's all good!"

"But—"

"No 'buts,'" he quickly interrupted me. "You already skipped out on dinner yesterday, and today you woke up too late to even eat breakfast – You gotta eat _something_, Crystal."

Well, damn… I guess he got me there…

"Oh, fine," I sighed in defeat before taking a bite out of the sandwich just to appease him. Although I normally didn't have too many particular preferences when it came to food, I had to admit that as far as sandwiches go… it was really good!

"It's good, isn't it?" Jaden inquired, though it was obvious he already knew the answer to that after seeing the sudden smile that came across my face.

"Um, yeah; it actually is," I replied with another smile. "Thanks a lot, big brother!"

* * *

And so once we had finished eating, Jaden and I were about to go ahead and leave the card shop when someone else suddenly walked in.

It was a guy dressed in a torn black trench coat with a purple shirt underneath, along with long, ragged black pants and thick brown shoes. He had wild black hair that practically stuck out everywhere, and eyes of black that seemed to radiate conceit. To be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that he kind of scared me, I _might_ have even said that I thought he looked sort of cute…

While I was fine with simply ignoring the kid since I was sure I had never seen him before, Jaden apparently was acquainted with guy because then he waved to him and exclaimed, "Hey there, Chazz! What a coincidence running into you here!"

'Chazz,' as I assumed his name was, only scowled mildly and huffed in annoyance at Jaden's greeting. "Oh, great… Can't I go just _one_ weekend without having to deal with you, slacker?" he growled in annoyance.

Although his comment was basically an insult, Jaden didn't seem to take it too seriously and just laughed it off. "Oh? So is _that_ why I didn't see you anywhere yesterday?"

The boy's irritation only seemed grow, evident by a small pressure point suddenly appearing on the side of his forehead. "Exactly, but naturally you always find a way to annoy me anyway. Honestly, between having to put up with you and that irritating, yellow pest, I'm going to go nuts!"

Too late for that, I'd say…

"_Aw, you don't really mean that, do ya, boss~?"_ this floating, yellow see-through imp-like thing in tight red underwear piped in as it suddenly danced around Chazz's head. _"I always though you and I got along pretty well!"_ The creature had a little nose and fat orange lips exposing huge teeth, and on top of its big pear-shaped head were two long, squiggly eyestalks, each with a little eyeball on top. In a way, it looked a little like a banana slug, only with twiggy little arms and legs.

Well, whatever it was, it really freaked me out. "Eek! What in the world is _that_?" I gasped loudly as I staggered back a good two feet before finally hiding behind my brother like a frightened child. Why didn't Jaden and the other kid look as weirded-out as me? Oh, don't tell me that that meant this was _another one_ of those crazy Duel Spirits!

Chazz clenched his teeth in exasperation and broke out into a nervous sweat. "Ah! Uh, it-it's nothing!" he denied frantically. Under his breath, he hissed through clenched teeth, "Get outta here, you little snot! Can't you see no one wants you around!?" He jumped up and swatted that little imp with a clap of his hands. A little squeak came out from the spirit before it vanished in a puff.

A small sigh of relief escaped my lips as I came out of my hiding place after that yellow creature disappeared, glad to see it gone. "You made that scary slug-thing go away," I said to Chazz with a faint smile as I bowed in gratitude. "Thank you so much!"

As if suddenly noticing my existence fully for the first time, the raven-haired boy's gaze finally fell on me. And once he laid eyes on me, I couldn't help but notice his cheeks turn slightly pink. "Sure—It was nothing," he replied, a cocky smirk appearing on his lips. "The name's Chazz Princeton by the way."

"Oh. And, well, my name is Crystal," I said, stating my name to be polite. "Please be sure not to forget that…"

"Crystal, huh? Hey, wait… Aren't you that new kid that beat Truesdale yesterday?" he asked suddenly, as if my name rang some kind of bell for him.

"I-I guess…" I shrugged slightly, looking off to the side shyly.

The boy smirked yet again. "Heh. Well, I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed that someone was able to take down the Kaiser before yours truly, but I guess the fact that you won must mean that you're pretty skilled when it comes to dueling," he continued to speak. "But since you're still obviously new here and I'm feeling generous at the moment, I'll give you a little bit of advice…"

"Oh, really?" I raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner, surprised with this guy's self-assurance. This ought to be good…

Chazz nodded. "Yeah. Here it is: if you hope to get anywhere good in this school, then you should totally ditch this slacker over here," he said, pointing rudely at Jaden which he simply sweat-dropped in response to. "After all, you wouldn't want any of his lameness to rub off on you."

While I certainly did not appreciate this guy insulting my bother one bit, I somehow resisted the urge to slap him across the face and tell him off and instead just forced a fake, little smile. "Hum… Is that so?" I pretended to think it over. "Well, if that's the case, I'm afraid it may be already far too late for me then…"

"Huh?" Chazz looked confused.

I nodded my head slowly in mock-seriousness. "Yeah… I mean, he is my brother after all!"

"Say what?! He's you're brother?" Princeton yelled, almost falling back in apparent shock.

"That's right." I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction. "Aw… I really hope that fact doesn't affect whatever opinion you had about me _too _negatively," I said with fake concern. With that, I grabbed Jaden (who had surprisingly been quite for a whole two minutes now) by the sleeve of his jacket and once again began to exit the card shop. "Come on, big brother… We were leaving, weren't we?"

"Uh, I guess," Jaden replied as he let me drag him out of the store, neither of us giving Chazz so much as a farewell.

Chazz was silent as he watched us go...and, unfortunately for me (you'll find out why later on), once again blushing slightly.

* * *

"So, Jaden… Was that guy back there really another one of your friends?" I asked my brother as he and I made our way back towards the Slifer dorms. I was referring to that Chazz Princeton guy, of course. Jaden seemed to like the guy well enough, but the feeling sure didn't look very mutual to me…

"Sure was," Jaden nodded with a grin. "Chazz can seem a little harsh sometimes, but he's a really cool guy once you get to know him."

"Right…" I muttered somewhat skeptically, secretly wondering how Jaden could be so optimistic all the time.

I looked over at him then, suddenly remembering something I wanted to ask him about. "Um, but speaking of your friends… Why don't you tell me a little more about some of them?"

Really, I couldn't care less about most of those people I had met yesterday, but even _I_ knew it was a good idea to get as much information on your rivals when you had the chance… And of course I meant rivals in terms of people who were going to no doubt get in my way of spending as much time with Jaden as I wanted. What? Did you think I was talking about rivals in dueling or something? Ha! As if!

"Yeah, sure. What do you wanna know?" Jaden asked.

"Um, well, I was a little curious about that Alexis girl, for example," I said, making sure to keep my tone of voice clam and neutral, even though just saying her name started to make my blood boil a little for some reason.

"Okay. What about her?" I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was exactly, but _something_ about Jaden's demeanor seemed to change slightly after I brought up that blonde girl... Like he got even happier or something…

"Well, I just want to know what she is to you exactly… I mean, is she your _girlfriend_ or something like that?"

Jaden tapped his chin and looked up at the sky as he thought for a moment. "Hum… Well, I don't know about Alexis being my girlfriend, but she is my fiancée now that I think about it!"

After that statement, I stopped dead in my tracks; completely and utterly stunned by what I had just heard. My eyes went wide as my jaw nearly dropped in astonishment. _Did Jaden just say that he and that Alexis girl are… engaged? _I thought, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach.

I guess I always knew somewhere deep down that one day a girl would come along, steal Jaden's heart, and take him away from me, but I never thought it would be this soon… And especially not when we were still in high school!

"She's your fiancée?" I asked, trying my best to keep it together and remain calm, though it took me a great deal of effort, let me tell you. "Just when… when did this happen, big brother?"

"A few months ago, I guess," he answered like he didn't have a care in the world. "See, I had a duel with this tennis-crazed dude named Harrington, and he said whoever won got to be Alexis' fiancé."

My heart seemed to sink even further. "Oh… So I guess that means you must have won then, huh, big brother...?" I muttered sadly, able to put two and two together. I guess Jaden really _did_ like that girl after all if he was willing to fight for her hand in marriage…

"Ha, you know it! It was a really sweet duel, too!" Jaden beamed, actually seeming more excited to report that he had won the duel rather than gained a future bride.

_Huh? _I racked by brain then, trying very hard to remember: Did Jaden even know what being a fiancé meant? He certainly wasn't acting very much like he did… But still, if Jaden really _had_ promised himself to that girl, unwittingly or not, then the way I saw it, those two were already as good as married since I knew my brother wasn't the kind of guy to go back on his word...

And yet… the whole thing still really bothered the hell out of me! After all, just who was this Alexis girl anyway? Since I only briefly met her yesterday, I still didn't know very much about her… I know I said before that I didn't care about Jaden's little friends, but this fiancée matter was pretty important to me! I mean, was she even the right girl for my darling big brother? There was really only one easy way I knew to find out.

Spinning around on my heels, I began storming off in the other direction in a huff.

"Hey, where are you going, Crys?" Jaden called after me as I briskly walked away.

"You can head back to the Slifer dorms without me, Jaden," I told him, not even stopping to look back at him. "I have some business I suddenly have to take care of…"

* * *

Although it took me a while to get there after I got lost a few times (Tour or not, I'm still terrible when it comes to locating things), I eventually found my way to the Obelisk Blue girls' dormitories. And let me tell you, the sight of it really took my breath away.

"Whoa…" I gasped as I looked up at the white and blue castle-like building that overlooked a pristine crystal-blue lake. The place was a whole lot fancier than the Red Dorm, that's for sure. I mean, it even had a bathhouse near the courtyard!

I shook my head a little to pull myself together. After all, I didn't come all the way here to admire fancy architecture. Right now, it was of the upmost importance that I locate that Alexis girl so I could find out for myself if she was worthy of my big brother or not. Without wasting any more time, I opened the large wooden doors and walked right on in.

The inside of the dorm was pretty incredible as well. The lobby was all golden and glittery and elegant, with extremely high ceilings, tall doors, and even a wide marble staircase. It was really nice. Some of the girls living in it, however, were not.

Although I _thought _I was being polite enough when asking a few of the girls where I could maybe find Alexis, they all took one look at me, saw my red "uniform," and immediately blew me off without saying a word. While I was fairly used to the silent treatment by now, I still couldn't help but wonder what their problem was. I mean, was socializing with a Slifer really _that_ much of a hassle?

Still not wanting to give up, I approached the next girl I happened to see walk by. She had shoulder length bubblegum-pink hair that was held neatly in place with a white headband, and sleepy, green eyes. Since she was a few inches taller and looked maybe a year or two older than I was, I figured she must be an upperclassmen, but that didn't stop me from trying to talk to her.

"Um… Hello there," I waved to her in hopes of catching her attention.

At that, the girl seized her promenade momentarily to look over in my direction. She just stared at me blankly for what seemed like several minutes as she quietly munched on a chocolate cream horn of all things. For a second I thought she was just going to walk away without even talking to me like all the other girls, but surprisingly, as soon as she had finished her snack, instead she simply walked up closer to me, reached into this plastic bag that she was holding, pulled something out, and handed it right to me.

"Here… For you…" she muttered sleepily as I grasped my fingers around whatever she had just given me.

Looking down at the object now in my hand, I saw that it was… a piece of wrapped candy? "Oh, um…Well, thank you," I managed to say after I got over my initial surprise. "But if you don't mind, I was hoping I could ask you—"

"Sorry, but I have to go now," the girl suddenly blurted out in that same monotone voice, cutting me off midsentence. "It was really nice meeting you, though…" Giving a brief, apologetic bow, she then simply began walking off to whatever she was headed before I had interrupted her.

I watched her go, blinking a few times in confusion. Something seemed a little… off about that girl… Oh, but at least she seemed a whole lot nicer than some of the other ladies in her dorm! I stared back down at the piece of candy in my hand for a few more seconds before stuffing it into my skirt pocket for safe keeping.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" a voice suddenly yelled.

"Huh?" I asked, and turned around.

Two Obelisk Blue girls stood there, a look of annoyance and anger on their faces. One was a haughty-looking girl with shoulder length auburn colored hair and grey eyes, while the other girl sported long black hair tied in a low ponytail and had big brown eyes.

"Um, hi… Look, I know I'm not exactly supposed to be here," I started, "but I kind of need help—"

"Help with what? Finding your way out?" The redhead asked, seeming as annoyed as ever.

"If you're looking for the exit, it's that way," the raven-haired girl spoke this time, lifting up a slender finger as she pointed to the front door.

It was obvious they wanted me out, but I wasn't going anywhere until I finished what I set out to do. "Listen, I didn't come here looking for directions," I quickly retorted. "I just want to know where I can find a girl named Alexis. Do you know her?"

"Of course we know her," the redhead scoffed. "But why should we tell you where she is? After all, Alexis is the Queen of Obelisk Blue, so why would she want to see a slacker like you for?"

"Hey! I'm not a—" I began to protest but was cut off by the other girl speaking over me.

"Hang on a second…Jasmine, isn't she the girl that beat Zane yesterday?" she asked, squinting at me a little as if trying to get a better look.

"You know what, Mindy, I think you're right," the redhead, or Jasmine, answered her friend. She was staring at me a bit harder too, though her glare never went away. "But if you ask me, this girl winning totally had to be a fluke! I mean, there's no other way _the_ Zane would ever lose to a girl like _her_."

The raven-haired Mindy nodded. "Yeah, you're right! She must have cheated somehow. I bet she totally bewitched him or something! Like, why else would they stick her in with those Slifers?"

By this point, I was getting awfully annoyed by how they were talking about me like I wasn't even there. And those false accusations of theirs were starting to really piss me off too. "Excuse me, but I'll have you know that I don't need to bewitch _anyone_ to win at something like Duel Monsters," I snapped at the both of them after finally losing my temper. "And another thing: No one 'stuck' me in Slifer. Since I just transferred, I asked to start out there."

"Yeah right!" Jasmine rolled her eyes, apparently not believing me. "Talk all you want, but we're still not going to just tell you where Alexis is."

"Though we _might_ just consider changing our minds if you manage to beat both of us in a duel first," Mindy chimed in as she and her friend shot each other knowing smiles.

"Duel you two? Seriously?" I slapped a palm over my face in annoyance. Was it really that hard to just tell me where that blonde chick was hiding out without making such a fuss?

"What's the matter?" Jasmine sneered, placing a hand on her hip. "If you're strong enough to beat Zane without cheating, like you claim, then you should have no problem going up against me and Mindy here."

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. A sigh of defeat escaped my lips when I finally realized that they were never going to tell me what I wanted to know unless I beat it out of them in a duel first. "Alright, fine… If that's what it's going to take, I guess I'll just have to take you both on then…"

* * *

Since I didn't want to waste my time dueling them one after the other, I agreed to face Jasmine and Mindy in a two-on-one duel right there in the dorm lobby. The rules were simple: each side started out with 4000 Life Points and no one could attack until after each player had a turn.

We all activated our Duel Disks, drew five cards from our decks and cried out, "DUEL!"

(Crystal: 4000 LP/ Jasmine & Mindy: 4000 LP)

Jasmine decided that she would start things off. "Okay, it's my turn! I draw!" she exclaimed as she drew her sixth card and added it to her hand. "I summon Command Knight in Attack Mode."

A beautiful sandy-blonde female knight garbed in red and brown armor with an outer grey skirt, a purple cape, and a helmet adorned with brown wings appeared on the field, wielding a shield and sword (ATK 1200/1900).

"And thanks to Command Knight's effect, every Warrior-type monster on our field, including herself, gains 400 Attack Points," Jasmine explained as her monster was suddenly surrounded in a golden light as her Attack rose to 1600. "My turn's done. Floor's all yours, Mindy."

"He-he, don't mind if I do," Mindy giggled as she joined the card she had just drawn with the rest of her hand. "For my first move I'll also bring out a Command Knight in Attack Mode!"

As she slapped the card down on her Duel Disk, another warrior identical to Jasmine's emerged onto the field.

"And just like Jasmine's, my Command Knight's effect will also raise all of our Warriors' Attack by 400!"

So just like that, Mindy's Command Knight's ability went into play, increasing both of the warriors' Attack to 2000.

"But that's not all though," Mindy went on. "Next I'll activate the Continuous Spell, The A. Forces, and thanks to this card, every Warrior monster on our side gains 200 Attack Points for every Warrior- and Spellcaster-type monster we have out!"

I cursed under my breath as the Attack of both Command Knights rose by another 400, giving them each a grand total of 2400. Obviously these two had some experience dueling as a team…

"And if that wasn't bad enough, there's one more thing you should know, new girl," Jasmine spoke up this time. "Thanks to Command Knight's other effect, as long as there's another monster on our field, you can't select Command Knight as an attack target."

"That's right," Mindy nodded. "And, like, since we have two out on the field, one of our Knights will just protect the other, meaning you won't be able to attack either one!"

As if to prove their point, both Command Knights crossed their swords in front of each other in the shape of an 'X' to form an Attack Lock.

"Anyway, I end my turn," Mindy finally finished. "Try to top that, new girl!"

My eye began to twitch uncontrollably in annoyance at that moment, and it had nothing to do with the duel. "Can you please stop calling me 'new girl' already? For your information, my name is Crystal. Commit it to memory!"

"Whatever, _Crystal_," Jasmine rolled her eyes, obviously not really caring. "Just hurry up and make your move already."

"You don't need to tell me twice," I declared as I drew a card from my deck, almost slicing the very air as I did so.

When I looked down at the cards in my hand, a small grimace suddenly greased my lips. No, it wasn't that my cards were bad—actually I had a pretty damn good hand—it was just that they involved me winning in a rather… cheap and petty kind of way. But then again, since my goal mainly _was_ to beat these two girls as quickly as possible, who really cared how the hell I won?

"Alright, I think I'll start things off by placing two cards faced down," I said as I inserted two cards into my Spell/Trap Card Zone. "Next, I'll activate the Continuous Spell, Temple of the Kings."

As I activated the card, the image of an ancient shrine-like structure covered in hieroglyphics suddenly appeared behind me. In truth, this card was probably a bit unnecessary and somewhat arbitrary, as you'll soon find out, but since it was going to save me almost a whole five seconds in this duel, I figured why the hell not use it?

"And thanks to this card, I'm allowed to activate Trap Cards on the same turn I set them," I went on. "And you know what? I think I'll do just that by activating one of my face-downs, Ring of Destruction!"

The moment my Trap was sprung, this glowing ring with flashing explosives emerged from the card and flew around the neck of Jasmine's Command Knight.

"So now, due to Ring of Destruction's effect, I can destroy one monster on the field and then each side will take damage equal to the destroyed monster's Attack Points," I explained.

"What!?" both Jasmine and Mindy gasped in unison.

"You heard me," I said, narrowing my eyes. "But since I don't feel like dragging this duel out any longer than it needs to be, at this moment I'm activating my other Trap, Barrel Behind the Door."

With a snap of my fingers, my second face-down activated which soon materialized a gun-shaped blaster that was aimed right at my opponents.

"I can only activate Barrel Behind the Door when a card effect that inflicts damage to my Life Points is activated," I informed the two Obelisk girls yet again. "But thanks to this card, I can negate the damage I would have taken and transfer it to you two instead."

"No way…" Jasmine gasped.

"But wait… Then that means…" Mindy trailed off as she slowly began to realize what was about to happen.

"It means game over!" I exclaimed right before the collar around Jasmine's monster suddenly detonated, creating an explosion that destroyed Command Knight and took 2400 of Jasmine and Mindy's Life Points along with it.

(Crystal: 4000 LP/ Jasmine & Mindy: 1600 LP)

Like I said, while I normally would have also taken damage from Ring of Destruction's effect, Barrel Behind the Door was able to absorb the damage I would have suffered, transforming it into a bullet of some kind. The bullet was then promptly loaded into the blaster, spun around in the barrel for a few seconds, and then finally fired with a loud 'BANG!'

The blast soared across the field, nailing the two Obelisk girls and causing them to lose another 2400 Life Points, which left them with absolutely nothing this time.

Both Jasmine and Mindy fell down to their knees as the holograms of all of our cards slowly vanished, meaning that it was, in fact, the end of the duel.

"Unbelievable!" Jasmine cried out in shock. "We actually lost?"

"Yeah… And she beat us without even summoning a single monster, too…" Mindy added dolefully.

I walked over to where the two girls had fallen. "Although I honestly don't really care too much about it, I suppose I _should_ say that I'm sorry for kind of taking the easy way out and using your own monsters to win like that," I apologized, albeit halfheartedly. "But anyway… Since I won, do you think one of you could please tell me where I can find Alexis now?"

"What's going on here?" a new voice came from behind.

I glanced around, and who do you think I saw suddenly walking down the foyer stairs?

"Alexis?!" Jasmine and Mindy both gasped as the blonde finally made her way to where we were standing.

_Heh, speak of the Devil…_ I mused to myself, thinking what a stroke of luck it was that Alexis of all people happened to stumble upon our little duel. Well, at least she saved me the trouble of having to look for her any further…

"Oh, there you are, Miss Alexis," I addressed her, trying of force myself to sound as pleasant as possible. "What a coincidence. I was just asking these friends of yours where I might be able to find you, really."

"Well, I'm here now," she replied. "Was there something you needed, Crystal?"

"Yes, actually," I nodded. "If you're not too busy, I was hoping I could have a word with you about something…"

"Sure, I don't mind," Alexis shrugged her shoulders.

"That's great," I said, forcing another smile. "But do you think it would be alright if we'd go somewhere a bit more private?" I paused momentarily to cast a brief but menacing glance at Jasmine and Mindy who happened to still be in the room. They both flinched at the sight of my dark expression. "This place is starting to get a little too crowded for me…"

* * *

Taking my advice to go somewhere a tad more secluded, Alexis and I soon found ourselves outside in the dorm's courtyard.

"So, Crystal… What did you want to talk about exactly?" Alexis asked, breaking the silence that had settled in the moment we stepped out of the building.

"Well, first of all, I wanted to discuss something 'interesting' my big brother just recently told me… regarding _you_." Since I had my back to her, I turned around to face her then.

"You mean Jaden? What… what did he say?" she asked, and although she tried her best to hide it, I saw her cheeks turn pink in a slight blush.

I narrowed my eyes into an icy glare. So I was right after all. Yesterday I had briefly suspected that Alexis might have had a thing for Jaden, but now that reaction of hers just confirmed it.

Feeling the green-eyed monster within me begin to rage out of control, I pointed a finger at Alexis and yelled, "He said that he and you were engaged and that you two were going to go run off and get married!" Realizing that I might have paraphrased quite a bit, I quickly corrected myself. "Well, okay, so maybe Jaden didn't say that _exactly_, but he definitely said that you were his fiancée!"

I really don't know why I was yelling like that for. I guess it was mainly because a part of me secretly doubted that there would ever be a woman good enough for my big bother, so the thought of him being with any girl just really kind of ticked me off.

"What?!" Alexis exclaimed after hearing my comment, her eyes going wide in shock. She recovered her composure quickly though and then explained, "Listen, Crystal, I think I may know what you're talking about, but that whole fiancé thing was just a misunderstanding. Jaden and I are just friends, really."

"Ha! Yeah, right!" I quickly interjected, having a hard time believing what she was saying. "Even if you and Jaden aren't really engaged, I can still tell that you both like each other. Go ahead and admit it!"

She turned her head away from me then as her face flushed for a second time. "Oh, please! Don't be ridiculous…"

I narrowed my eyes again as I put my hands on my hips. "Humph… Deny it all you want, but it still won't change the fact that I need to duel you, Alexis."

To say that Alexis was more than a bit surprised would be an understatement. "Huh? You want to duel me? _Now_?"

"That's right," I nodded. "See, it's obvious that Jaden really loves dueling, so it only makes sense that the woman he ends up with be passionate about it as well," I explained, knowing full well that that was sadly one of the things I didn't think I could ever do for Jaden. That too made me feel rather jealous, but I tried not to let that get the better of me as I went on. "Having a duel with you is the only way I'll know for sure if you're even worthy of my big brother's time."

Although I still didn't really like the idea of any girl being with my big brother, since I knew it was bound to happen _eventually_, I at least wanted to make sure that she was someone who would be able to make Jaden happy.

Alexis rubbed the side of her temple, apparently starting to get a headache from this conversation. "I already told you: he and I are just _friends_…" she insisted. Still, a few seconds later she sighed and stared at me again; a sudden intense look now in her eyes. "But if it's a duel you want, then fine. I won't back down, Crystal."

I smirked a little then, glad to see that she had decided to cooperate with my wishes. "Perfect."

* * *

In a matter of moments, and after Alexis had found herself a Duel Disk, we were both standing several feet across from each other there in the courtyard, ready to duel.

We activated our Disks and drew our opening hands. "Let's duel!" we both shouted in unison.

"Since I'm the one that challenged you, you can start things off if you want, Miss Alexis," I said, already shooing her with my hand to insist that she'd make the opening move.

"If you insist," Alexis responded with a slight shrug. "The first move's mine then! I draw!" She joined the drawn card with the others in her hand and Normal Summoned a warrior to the field. "I summon Warrior Lady of the Wasteland in Defense Mode!"

A warrior lady with blond hair, garbed in green with a tattered cape and hat soon appeared in front of Alexis (ATK 1100/ DEF 1200).

"With that, I end my turn," Alexis finished.

"So it's my move then," I said, drawing a card. "I'll start off by activating the Spell, Double Summon. So now, thanks to this card, I'm allowed to Normal Summon twice this turn, and I think I'll go ahead and summon these two in Attack Mode: Rise, Masked Dragon and Axe Dragonute."

In a shower of golden sparks, two dragons appeared before me. One was the familiar red and white masquerading beast (ATK 1400/ DEF 1100); the other was a black and purple bipedal winged dragon that carried an oversized axe in his claws (ATK 2000/ DEF 1200).

"And now it's time to attack," I declared with a snap of my fingers. "Go, Masked Dragon! Destroy her Warrior Lady!"

The Fire-Attribute dragon launched a blazing fireball from his mouth, incinerating Warrior Lady of the Wasteland.

"Sorry, but it'll take more than a little heat to make me sweat," stated Alexis, not losing her cool for a second. "Since your Masked Dragon sent my warrior to the graveyard, I can now Special Summon an Earth Warrior-type monster from my deck, as long as its attack power is 1500 or less, and I think I'll summon another Warrior Lady of the Wasteland!"

As Alexis slapped the card on her Duel Disk, yet another female warrior, identical to her first, emerged on the field in Attack Mode.

"Heh… Then it looks like I'll just have to destroy her as well," I said as I readied my next monster to attack. "Axe Dragonute, be a dear and cut that warrior down to size, if you'd please."

Axe Dragonute wasted no time following orders as he soared high into the air before dive-bombing down on Alexis' monster in order to give her the axe. _Literally_. After receiving a fatal slash wound, Warrior Lady of the Wasteland was destroyed, bursting into shards of golden light that took 900 of Alexis' Life Points along with it.

The blonde staggered slightly as her Life Point meter dropped to 3100. "Nice move, but don't forget, since you destroyed another one of my Warrior Ladies in battle, I can call out another one of my friends to take her place, and this time I choose my Blade Skater!"

This time, a woman in a purple and gray jumpsuit with skate blades on her arms and feet suddenly appeared on the Obelisk's field in Attack Mode (ATK 1400/ DEF 1500).

"Whatever... Anyway, due to my Axe Dragonute's effect, since he just attacked, he must now switch into Defense Position," I stated as my dragon was forced to take a knee as he crouched down in Defense. "Next I'll place one card facedown and end my turn." My move came to a close as the image of a reversed card appeared at my feet.

"Then that means it's my turn again," Alexis said as she drew her next card. "I activate the Spell Card, Polymerization to fuse Blade Skater with the Etoile Cyber in my hand," she declared, revealing the Spell Card along with a Monster Card that I assumed must have been Etoile Cyber.

I narrowed my eyes then as I watched her two monsters fuse; waiting to see what was coming next.

"Cyber Blader, rise!" Alexis exclaimed.

A blue-haired female skater garbed in red and blue materialized on the field, executing remarkable ice-skating twirls and stunts that kind of made me dizzy just watching it (ATK 2100/ DEF 800).

"And with two monsters currently out on your field, Cyber Blader's Attack Points will now double due to her effect," Alexis explained as her monster's Attack suddenly shot up to 4200.

_Great…_ I thought sarcastically to myself as I balled my left hand into a tight fist.

"But that's not all," the Obelisk Queen went on. "Since I still have my Normal Summon, it's now time for my Cyber Tutu to take the stage!"

A pink-haired ballerina in a red and white jumpsuit emerged on the field in Attack Mode, performing an elegant pirouette and taking a bow (ATK 1000/ DEF 800).

"My Cyber Tutu may not look very tough at first, but her Special Ability ought to make you think otherwise," Alexis went on. "Since all of the monsters on your field have Attack Points that are higher than hers, she's allowed to wage a direct attack on you! Go get her, Cyber Tutu! Pounding Pirouette!"

Cyber Tutu launched into the air, performing a graceful front flip layout before landing in front of me to give me a spinning back kick right on the shoulder that cost me 1000 Life Points.

"Now it's your turn, Cyber Blader! Attack Masked Dragon with Whirlwind Rage!" Alexis commanded.

Cyber Blader spun into a raging tornado and headed straight for my Masked Dragon. The poor thing was annihilated in seconds, taking 2800 more of my Life Points along with it.

(Crystal: 200 LP/ Alexis: 3100 LP)

"Masked Dragon may be gone, but thanks to his effect, since you destroyed him in battle, I can Special Summon another Dragon-type monster from my deck as long as its Attack is 1500 or below," I explained as I began searching my deck for the dragon I wished to summon. "Here it is: I'll Special Summon another Masked Dragon in Defense Mode."

Another camouflaged dragon descended onto my field, this time kneeling down as he took the defensive.

"So… Have anything else for me?" I inquired.

"I sure do, because now I'm activating the Spell Card, Prima Light!" Alexis announced, revealing the Quick-Play Spell in her hand. The instant she activated it, a spotlight was shone on her ballerina. "By sending Cyber Tutu to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon Cyber Prima from my hand!"

As her Cyber Tutu left the field, she was soon replaced by a silver-haired, masked woman dressed in an elaborate sliver jumpsuit, with golden rings around her arms and waist (ATK 2300/ DEF 1600).

"Cyber Prima, go and attack Masked Dragon!" Alexis commanded.

Cyber Prima showed off with a graceful dance before she launched a powerful kick at my dragon.

I growled a little as my monster exploded in a bust of light. "Yeah, well, just like last time, since Masked Dragon was destroyed by battle, I'll activate his effect to Special Summon a third one from my deck."

At my words, a third Masked Dragon appeared on my field, once again in Defense Mode.

"Now I end my turn by throwing a facedown," Alexis finished as she set a card in her Spell/Trap Card Zone. "It's your go now, Crystal."

"Gee, thanks," I replied somewhat sarcastically as I initiated my Draw Phase.

Although I didn't like to admit it, this Alexis girl was better than I had originally thought. I guess that 'Queen of Obelisk Blue' title of hers wasn't just for show… Regardless, she would still have to do something that really blew me off my feet before I'd say that she was good enough for my brother.

When I looked down at the cards in my hand, my eyes sparkled with mischief as I realized that these cards could seriously do a number on Alexis. Let's just see how she handled this…

"Alright, first I'll sacrifice my Masked Dragon and Axe Dragonute in order to summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon in Attack Mode."

My two dragons were suddenly surrounded by a flash of light, soon disappearing so that Red-Eyes Black Dragon could take the field in their place (ATK 2400/ DEF 2000).

"And now with only one monster on my field, Cyber Blader's Attack Points return to normal, right?" I asked even though I already got my answer when I saw the skater's Attack drop back down to 2100.

"The only problem is that now you can't destroy her in battle with only one monster on your field," Alexis explained.

I rolled my eyes in slight annoyance. Damn, how many effects did that monster have? "Oh, okay. Thank you for telling me that. Anyway, with Red-Eyes now on the field, at this moment I'm activating the Spell Card, Inferno Fire Blast. Thanks to this card, you take damage equal to Red-Eyes' original Attack Points. Go! Inferno Fire Blast!"

Red-Eyes seemed happy to comply as he opened his jaws, whipped back his head, and shot a giant blazing sphere of dark fire at Alexis. The attack nailed her with a loud bang, dishing out 2400 points of damage to her in an instant.

(Crystal: 200 LP/ Alexis: 700 LP)

I wasn't done quite yet, however. "Next, since Red-Eyes isn't allowed to attack the turn I activate Inferno Fire Blast, I'll just trade him in so I can Special Summon an even stronger monster of mine: Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!"

Suddenly, Red Eyes melted away into a pool of magma which soon created its more powerful form. He had three pairs of razor-like wings for arms, red crests and markings all over his body, and, of course, gleaming red eyes (ATK 2400/ DEF 2000).

"And thanks to his Special Ability, for every Dragon-type monster in my Graveyard, Darkness Dragon grows 300 Attack Points stronger," I went on. "So with five Dragons currently sleeping in my Grave that means Darkness Dragon gains a 1500 Attack boost."

Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon roared loudly as he was soon enveloped in a dark purple light, taking in the essences of my fallen dragons which raised his Attack to 3900.

Alexis just stared up at the beast in silence, but I could see that her hazel eyes had grown slightly wider in surprise.

While my dragon was now strong enough to take out the rest of Alexis' Life Points no matter which monster of hers I chose to attack, I found myself feeling a little apprehensive as I suddenly remembered that Alexis still had a facedown card. Was it a trap that could hurt me? I wondered. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cards to get rid of it at the moment. The card I had set earlier was Call of the Haunted, but at this moment I deemed it pretty much useless since Special Summoning one of my dragons from the Graveyard would do me more harm than good at this point given how it would weaken Darkness Dragon by 300 points and only raise her Cyber Blader's points again if I had two monsters out.

No, my only real option now was just to go ahead and attack head-on. After all, I was a bit interested to see if Alexis could handle this or not.

"All right, Darkness Dragon, let's end this duel! Attack Alexis' Cyber Blader with Inferno Darkfire!"

On command, Darkness Dragon unleashed a searing-hot plume of brilliant red flame, launching it at Cyber Blader to finish the job. Since Darkness Dragon's Attack was 3900 and Cyber Blader's only 2100, Alexis would therefore receive a total of 1800 points of damage, dropping her Life Points to zero and therefore allow me to win the duel.

But while that was all so simple on paper that's not exactly what ended up happening since Alexis apparently had other things in mind. "I don't think so!" she exclaimed as she revealed her face-down. "I activate the Trap Card, Doble Passé! With this card, your monster's attack changes to a direct one on me and in exchange the monster you were about to attack gets to wage a direct attack on you!"

"What!?" I cried out in astonishment, not expecting a move like that at all.

Before I even had time to take in the situation, Darkness Dragon's blast suddenly switched targets and gravitated towards Alexis, surrounding her in a sea of flames that reduced her Life Points to nothing. In the very next moment, Alexis' Cyber Blader skated towards me with magnificent grace and launched a spinning back kick at me that literally blew me off my feet as my Life Points hit zero was well.

Now laying face up on the grass, I stared off into space as my mind played back the events that had just transpired, trying to process what had happened exactly. The duel had ended in a draw, I finally realized after a few seconds. Huh… Well, I sure didn't see _that _one coming…

While Alexis and I had both fallen to the ground, I guess since I hadn't gotten blasted quite as hard as her, I managed to recover faster, and got up first. "I think I see what you did there, Alexis," I commented as I began walking over to where she was. "Since you didn't see a way you could win the duel at that moment, you decided that neither of us should, huh?"

By that point, I was now standing over the fallen Alexis. Although my gaze was still pretty cold at first, I let my expression soften as I extended a hand towards her. "Heh… Well, I have to admit, that was pretty good."

"Thanks," Alexis said as she took my hand and I helped her off the grass.

"No problem," I smiled slightly, now feeling a little better about what I had to say next… "Hum… Alright, Alexis; I guess I approve."

"Huh? Approve of what exactly?" Alexis asked, not seeming to understand what I was talking about.

"Of you marrying my dear big brother, of course!" I answered matter-of-factly. "Since you proved yourself to be a pretty strong and committed Duelist, I can tell you'll be able to make Jaden really happy, so I wholeheartedly approve of you!" I paused for a second. "Well, that is, as long as you don't do anything to hurt my big brother or anything, but since you seem like a nice enough person, I don't think I have to worry about that too much..."

"Oh, well thanks, Crystal," Alexis smiled, obviously appreciating the complement, but when she finished processing all of what I said, her face flushed yet again and she quickly interjected with, "Hey, wait! Crystal, I already told you: Jaden and I are _not_ engaged!"

"_Right_," I replied with a sly smile. "But like I said, if you two_ did_ ever decide to get married one day, I'd be totally okay with it now. And if that really does happen, then you can be just like the sister I never really wanted!"

Gazing up at the darkening sky then, I suddenly realized how late it was getting. Crap, I should probably get back to my dorm before it got dark. If night ended up falling, I know I would get lost again for sure… "Oh, sorry, Alexis, but I really should be going now," I said as I already started sprinting off in the other direction.

"Hey, Crystal, hold on!" Alexis called after me, apparently still determined to convince me that her and Jaden weren't an item, but I just ignored her this time.

"See you around, big sis!" I waved back at her before I was completely out of sight.

* * *

**Misha: Yay! You finally made it back to me! Well, that's all for now. So, two duels in one chapter… what do you think of that? Since Jasmine and Mindy were never shown in a full-scale duel in the anime and since we only got to just a few of their cards, I decided to give them some cards more suitable for tag duels since it seems like they **_**would **_**probably team up a lot, you know? And what about that duel with Alexis? I thought it turned out pretty well, all things considered! Because I actually really like Alexis though, I thought ending the duel in a tie was a pretty nice way to finish thing since I didn't feel like having her beat outright. ****Doble Passé rocks by the way—I so wish they would have made it a real card outside of the anime and manga, but what can you do? (Am I asking too many questions?)**

**I'm kind of bad at describing outfits, but if you're able to see the little picture icon for this story, then that's pretty much what Crystal and her outfit are supposed to look like (Yeah, I know I'm not much of a drawer, but don't judge!).**

**Oh, and I hope no one tries to bite my head off about me putting a Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon in Crystal's deck, but you really should have seen that one coming when I first revealed she had Red-Eyes Black Dragon (and now that I think about it, you're going to be seeing **_**a lot**_** from Red-Eyes in Crys' duels since he's kind of her go-to monster…). And besides, it's not like her Darkness Dragon is evil like Nightshroud's was or anything, so… **

**Anyway, like I said, that's all I got for now. Chapter 5 might take a while since I'm going to be going on a little vacation before school starts up again, but I'll try working on it when I'm not too busy doing something. And I promise that so your poor eyes won't be strained anymore from reading my overly long chapters, this will be the last super long one for a while. Sorry!**

**Comments and feedback for this chapter will be greatly appreciated, so R & R please! (Seriously, just tell me anything you like or hate about my story or OC—I don't care… well, as long as you're not too terribly mean to a point where you make me never want to type another single letter again, that is.) If my review count would reach at least 40, I'd be **_**so**_** happy! Fingers crossed! Okay, later, guys! **


	5. New Places, New Faces, and Some Advice

**Misha: Hey, everyone! What's it been, over a month since I last updated? Sorry about that, but I was met with a combination of writer's block, laziness, and annoying hand cramps. Yeah, about that last part… Remember in the previous chapter when I mentioned I got a new piano? **_**Well**_**, I kind of went overboard with the playing and really did a number on my poor hands which really made writing all the more difficult for me (I was kind of obsessed and just couldn't stop playing ****砕月** **[**_"__**Broken Moon"**_**] over and over for some reason). I swear, I'm going to get tendinitis, or even arthritis, one of these days if I'm not careful… But I'm all better for now, so no worries! **

**And oh, my goodness! I got 42 reviews for this story so far! That exceeded my last goal by a whole 2 units! Yay! I'm so happy, so thanks to all of you who have reviewed so far! You're the best, so please keep it up!**

**But anyway, on with the chapter! **

**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own **_**Yu-Gi-Oh! GX**_** or any of its characters (however, the OCs are mine).****All other rights belong to Kazuki Takahashi & co.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: New Places, New Faces, and Some Advice**

_How in the world did this happen?_ I thought angrily to myself as I held my head in my hands, becoming really tempted to just slam my forehead down on the desk in front of me.

I was in class at the moment, but it wasn't really the material being covered that was getting me down. No, in truth I wasn't even listening to a damn word Dr. Crowler was currently ranting on about. What was really eating at me was the fact that this class, and just about all of my other ones for that matter, didn't have Jaden in it! In fact, no other first-years besides me seemed to be in this stupid Advanced Duel Strategies class. On top of that, I was the only Slifer in here as well which made me literally stick out like a sore thumb in a sea of blue and yellow.

I don't know how, but _somehow _I had managed to get myself thrown into this stupid upper-division course, and because of just this one damn subject, I was put into a different class than Jaden's! From the looks of it, the only time I would get to see him at school was during gym since all the first-years apparently had it together…

_But why me?_ I wondered, still a bit pissed off that I couldn't figure out why I was in this situation. Was it because I simply happened to apparently have done well on a few stupid tests in those damn entrance exams? The only reason I probably even passed in the first place was because I so got nervous about failing that I ended up spending hours memorizing every dueling handbook and encyclopedia I could find just to be safe.

Oh, but if I had known all of this was going to happen, I would have failed most of those exams on purpose if it meant I could be in the same class as Jaden!

_This isn't fair!_ I wanted to scream out loud. Finally unable to resist the urge any longer, I went ahead and just slammed my head down on my desk with a rather loud bang. I'm sure the noise from my sudden action might have turned a few nearby heads if they had nothing else better to do, but at the moment I didn't really care all that much. All I wanted to do was to stay like that and wallow in my misery for a little while longer...

**~Zane's Point of View~**

WHAM!

Nearly half of the class turned their heads in the direction that loud sound had suddenly emanated from. Since it was in my general vantage point, I eventually looked over as well.

In one of the lower rows, a pale-skinned brunette dressed in red sat there in her seat with her head down on the desk. Judging from the loud bang that was heard just a few moments ago and her current position, I figured that she must have slammed her face down onto the table or something along those lines…

Several of the students who had noticed the girl snickered under their breaths, apparently amused by her self-inflicted injury.

Not too happy with his lecture being interrupted, within seconds, Dr. Crowler approached the girl's desk to give her a stern talking-to.

When she lifted up her head to be 'properly' scolded by the professor, I was finally able to see her face and soon realized that it was that Crystal girl from the other day. Although she didn't seem too sincere when she said it, the first-year apologized to Crowler for disrupting the class before he finally let her off with a warning and went back to teaching.

Left to her own devices, the girl then just rested her head back on the desk and seemingly drifted off to sleep.

I suppose dozing off during class was one of the traits she shared with her brother… But so far, that's where the similarities seemed to end. While Jaden was more of an outspoken and open kid who wore his heart on his sleeve, as the saying goes, Crystal seemed slightly more like the quiet and closed off-type.

Or at least that was the impression I had gotten from her when I first met her and when we dueled anyway. During that duel, I also couldn't help but notice that Crystal didn't appear to actually be enjoying herself until nearly the end when she had _almost_ fallen behind. From the way she acted, seeming so excited after losing all of those Life Points in just one turn, you would have thought that the girl had never experienced a real challenge before until that very moment...

I shook my head a little to dismiss my thoughts and just tried to focus on the lecture being given. Honestly, I don't know what I was doing thinking so much about a person I had just met in the first place…

* * *

**~Crystal's Point of View~**

After having to sit through four more boring lessons (which I just ended up sleeping through most of anyway), it was finally time for gym. Normally I absolutely detested Physical Education, but since that was the only class I actually shared with Jaden, I was pretty happy about going.

Sadly, however, my enthusiasm was short lived since the gum teacher, Ms. Fontaine, thought it was a good idea to split up the boys and girls in order to play different team sports. While the guys were playing baseball, the girls were meant to partake in volleyball, so once again I didn't even get to see my big brother!

To make things worse, I _hated_ volleyball. In fact, I disliked any and all sports that involved projectiles that were capable of flying towards me at breakneck speeds...

In an attempt to avoid getting in anyone's way or actually having to play, I just stood in the corner of the court, watching the ball as the girls hit it back and forth across the net while desperately hoping that it didn't come anywhere near me.

But since this just didn't seem to be my day, of course I didn't end up getting my wish. One of the more athletic girls on the other team spiked the ball so hard that none of the girls on my side of the net were able to return it in time. In a freak act of nature, once the ball hit the ground, it ricocheted off of it and actually stated flying right towards me!

_Crap, crap, crap!_ Freaking out, I essentially ended up freezing in place. In the end, the only thing I was able to do was yelp slightly, shield my face with my hands, and pray that being hit wouldn't hurt _too_ much.

While I waited for the ball to beam me, surprisingly it never did. Taking a peek from between my fingers, I saw that a girl had stepped in front of me and caught the ball before it had the chance to hit me. But it wasn't just any girl, I soon realized. It was Alexis! (Heh, I guess I was so busy with trying not to play, I didn't even notice that Alexis and I were on the same team…)

"Oh, wow! You totally saved me just now!" I gasped in both surprise and relief as I walked over to her. "Thank you so much, big sister!"

"Sure, Crystal… It was nothing. But don't you think you're being a little overdramatic?" Alexis said, her face a little red as if she was embarrassed by my praising of her. "And are you seriously going to keep calling me that?"

I blinked a few times in confusion before I finally realized what the problem was. "Oh, um... Well, I guess if you don't like it, I can just call you by your name if that's what you want, big sis—oops, sorry! He-he… I mean, 'Alexis'!"

Alexis sweat-dropped and sighed a little. "Anyway… Since gym is pretty much over anyway, why don't we just head back to the locker rooms to get changed?"

"O-okay," I nodded as I took her advice and followed her and the other girls into the ladies' locker room so that I could get out of these gym clothes, really glad that this horrible class was finally over.

* * *

I let out a heavy sigh of disappointment as my eyes narrowed in response to the lull of the ocean and the mesmerizing pounding of the waves against the stone harbor.

Class had ended some time ago and while I thought that I would defiantly get hang out with Jaden for sure this time, as it just so happened, he and his little friend Syrus had to stay behind after school to make up an exam they apparently slept through last week which meant… You guessed it: I still hadn't gotten to be with Jaden _all_ day. I had spent a little time with Alexis after class instead, but the instant I started to bring up her relationship with my brother, she 'conveniently' remembered that she needed to do something for one of her other friends and then left in quite a hurry…

_I guess today is just one of those stupid days where nothing really goes your way, huh…?_ I mused to myself with another sigh as I watched the sun begin to seemingly inch closer and closer towards the ocean.

Since I hadn't felt like being at the Slifer dorms all by myself, I ended up taking a walk and soon found myself here over by the docks where a small lighthouse stood. With me was my violin. I brought it with me just in case I happened to find a nice quite place to practice, and I'm glad to say that it looks like I did. This place was seemed pretty secluded and peaceful which meant that I wouldn't disturb anyone with my playing and vice versa.

Resting my chin against the violin's ebony chinrest and getting my bow into position, I then went on to play the first song that was on my mind, which in this case was _"Distant from You…"_ (*). I thought it was a fitting choice considering my current situation, so I just went with it full-heartedly. In all honestly, I loved playing the piano and guitar and all, but the violin was by far my favorite. It just made me feel so calm and at ease whenever I played it, it was almost like none of my problems really mattered…

I closed my eyes and smiled as I continued to play; letting myself get completely lost in the music.

**~Zane's Point of View~**

Now that it was fairly late in the evening, I was on my way over to stand by the lighthouse like I often did, but as I got closer to the docks, I was fairly surprised when I began to hear… music?

It sounded like a violin was being played, to be more exact. The song had a rather clam and peaceful melody, but at the same time, it also seemed somewhat bittersweet and melancholic. In a way, it was reminiscent of that feeling you get when you think of someone important to you that you've been separated from and haven't been able to see in a long time…

Looking up ahead, I noticed a figure standing there at the edge of the platform. Judging by the height and size, I reasoned that it was a girl, though it wasn't until I got even closer that I was able to make out any distinguishable features.

This girl, equipped with a violin in hand, had extremely long, dark brown hair and was dressed in a red and black outfit that only vaguely resembled the school uniform. Although her eyes were closed, I remembered that hers were a dark violet as I soon realized that I was once again gazing upon Crystal Yuki.

Apparently she was so engrossed with her music that she didn't even notice that I was even there. She had such a warm and sincere smile on her face as she played; it was easy to tell that she was really enjoying herself at that moment. It was almost a complete turnaround compared how she was acting this morning during class, which was a good thing, I suppose.

Thinking that it was probably best not to disturb her, I decided to just stand there quietly and listen to her song until she finished.

* * *

**~Crystal's Point of View~**

Once the cramps in my hands and fingers became uncomfortable enough, I finally stopped playing and lowered my violin and bow down to my sides with a small but content sigh.

"So you like being out here too, huh?"

I blinked. That male voice was familiar... "Yeah... It's actually pretty soothing," I said as I fully came out of my trance.

In my daze, the time had slipped away, and now nightfall was near. The docks were showered with the dazzling rays from the setting sun. A couple of feet away from me, and now leaning against the lighthouse, was the same boy that I had dueled against on my very first day here on the island.

I bit down hard on my lower lip as I continued to glance at Truesdale from the corner of my eye_. Okay, Crystal,_ I told myself sternly. _You were acting really weird around this guy the other day for some reason, but you won't let that happen this time. Not ever again for that matter! You got that?_

After I had finished giving myself that little pep-talk and got myself to appear as cool as the other side of a pillow, I noticed that an unnerving silence had settled between the two of us. At that moment, I couldn't help but vaguely wonder if I was invading on this guy's turf or something…

"So I take it from your previous statement that you come here often?" I finally brought myself to ask in an attempt to break the ice, though I'm not sure if my voice even reached any louder than a whisper to be completely honest.

Zane shrugged as he stared out into the ocean. "Yeah. I come by often to think."

"I see... So is this your spot then? Because if that's the case, I can just leave if you—"

"Oh no, you can stay. I don't really mind company," answered Zane as he leaned back against the lighthouse, arms crossed.

"Oh…Okay then…" After putting my violin back in its case, I stood back up while holding onto the case's handle tightly with both hands as I took a spot a few centimeters closer to the tall, teal-haired boy. I was still probably a good three and a half feet away from him, but that was just fine with me.

_Not much of a talker, is he?_ I thought to myself once a few more moments of silence had elapsed as neither of us did anything but stare at the horizon of the ocean. It wasn't like I really minded, though. After all, I didn't actually have anything important to say either…

"Crystal... I didn't know you were a musician," Zane startled me a little by uttering suddenly. Looking at him for a brief moment, I noticed that his gaze had fallen towards my violin case.

_Hmm… Well, there are lots of things you don't know about me, really_, I was almost tempted to say out loud. But I didn't. Instead I just replied with, "Oh, um… Well, it's something I've been doing for a long time now, actually…"

"Is that so? Well, at any rate, I heard you playing, and you're pretty good," he said in a rather nonchalant tone.

It took a lot of what I had, but I think I somehow stopped my cheeks from flushing bright red and actually managed to keep myself from stammering as I answered that comment. "Thank you for saying that, but the truth is that I think I still have a long way to go if I ever want to be a concertmaster one day…"

"Concertmaster?" It wasn't really a question of confusion, but one of slight curiosity.

"Yes. See, that's what you call the first chair violin in an orchestra," I explained since I thought it was needed. "It really may be only a pipe dream of mine, but I would still love it if I were one day able to play in the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra."

"…Interesting," Zane commented after a moment's pause.

"Is it really?" I managed to ask calmly, though on the inside I was pretty curious to know why he thought of it that way.

"Well, it's just since you came to this school and seem to be rather talented when it comes to dueling, I would have figured that you would be interested in entering the Pro Leagues," he answered simply.

At that statement, I had to bite down on my tongue so that I wouldn't burst into uncontrollable laughter. I'm sorry, but I just found the very idea pretty ridiculous. After all… Me? A Professional Duelist? Yeah, right! As if I would ever want to be something like that!

Although I kept all of this inside my own head, I quickly realized that I was probably being terribly rude for thinking that way. Sure, I may not be into the whole dueling thing, but this Zane guy obviously was. For all I knew, he and about half the other students in this academy had dreams of going Pro or something else along those lines. I had no business at all looking down on something like that…

After what seemed like several minutes of me scolding myself for being such an insensitive bitch, I finally found it in myself to reply to his last comment. "Oh… Well, to be honest, I've really never given something like that very much thought before… But I guess I can try to consider it more in the future."

"It's good that you're willing to keep an open mind about things, but you still shouldn't force yourself into doing things you're not comfortable with. Just follow whichever path you believe is best suited for you. In the end, that's all anyone can really do anyway."

At first, I didn't quite know how to process the advice he had just apparently given me. I mean, I wasn't expecting him to say anything like that, but at the same time, I really kind of appreciated it. "Thank you for the advice," I said quietly with a smile. "I'll try my best to really take it to heart..."

After that, there was another long period of silence with the only sound coming from the waves that were revolving around us.

Suddenly, a rather cold gust of wind blew from the north that sent a shiver throughout my whole body. By this point, night had completely fallen and since spring was still a ways away, it still got pretty cold after the sun went down. Rubbing my arms to get some warmth back into them, I finally decided that I had enough fresh air for one day.

"Well, it's getting pretty late for me," I stated, already shooting my gaze up towards the bridge that I knew led back to the Red dorm. "I guess it's about time I went back to my dorm..."

While I simply began to walk away after that, I soon stopped myself to look back at Zane. "Um… Do you think it would be alright if I came back here again sometime?" I couldn't keep myself from asking.

"You really don't need my permission for that. But sure; if that's what you want," was his reply, which suddenly lifted my spirits a little. Maybe today wasn't such a total loss after all…

"Okay then," I smiled slightly. "I guess, with any luck, I'll see you around, Zane."

Zane turned his head to look at me for a moment more and just then nodded his head curtly before turning back to look at the ocean. Heh… I suppose that was the closest thing to a goodbye I was going to get out of him this time around.

Although I doubted that he saw it, I gave a little wave goodbye as I once again began to walk to my dorm, disappearing into the night in a matter of moments.

* * *

Almost two weeks had passed since that first meeting at the lighthouse, and I had actually been feeling pretty good during those days despite still being a little peeved that I wasn't able to see Jaden during school hours as much as I liked. I really didn't know the reason for my good mood, though. I mean, I had been dropping by the lighthouse on some of those nights and ended up seeing Zane again a few times, but it wasn't like anything special ever happened. Occasionally he and I would have a small, simple conversation, but a part from that, we mainly just stood around looking at the ocean together until one of us got tired enough and decided to leave. Like I said, it wasn't much, but I still found myself enjoying those moments oddly enough…

During that time, I also tried to tolerate Jaden's friends a little bit better whenever they were around him the same time I was. Since I already deemed her as an acceptable future sister-in-law, Alexis was just fine in my book, but the others kind of had these irritating quirks that made it more difficult for me to deal with them… Syrus was nice enough but he seemed like a bit of a jumpy kid who was afraid of his own shadow (which I found kind of ironic considering how he tended to follow Jaden around as if he was _his_ shadow); Chumley talked _way_ too much about koalas and grilled cheese for my liking (though I guess I _did_ respect the fact that he was a pretty artistic guy); it kind of annoyed me how Bastion seemed to think that every single problem in the world could be solved with a stupid math equation or formula of some kind (but kudos to him for actually _liking_ all that math and science stuff, because I know I sure didn't); and finally, Chazz kept confusing me with his odd behavior every time I was around the guy (honestly, the way his face would get all red whenever I caught him staring at me was starting to make me feel like there was something seriously wrong with me that he just wouldn't tell me about…).

But thankfully, I didn't have to put up with anyone right now. It was once again Saturday and, at the moment, I was in my room with my beautiful, black Gibson SG Special electric guitar which I had unoriginally dubbed 'Black Beauty.' I had just replaced the strings and retuned it since I noticed that it was starting to sound a bit off, so I was just about to play it a little to make sure everything sounded okay.

After plugging it into the little portable amp I had, raised my pic and started to play just a few simple cords. _Yeah. That sounds so much better now!_ I thought happily to myself after I had decided that everything was tuned to my liking.

But when I had finally stopped playing, I was surprised to find that the music still seemed to persist. _What the heck?_ After a few seconds, I at last realized that those sounds weren't coming from my guitar, but from someplace else entirely.

Curiosity quickly getting the better of me, I soon got up to find out where that music was coming from. Once outside, I discovered that it was apparently emanating from somewhere on the other side of the dorm… Walking around to the back of the building, I found a door I didn't think I had ever noticed before.

Since I was pretty sure that was where the music was coming from, I just went ahead and slid the door open a little bit and peeked inside. What I ended up seeing really surprised me.

The inside of the room looked kind of like a fighting dojo of some kind which made the fact that there was a band playing in there all the more strange. There were four people in the group, to be more exact...

One was a guy wearing a Slifer Red blazer and jamming out on a vintage-looking black and white Fender Mustang. I was so impressed by his sweet guitar that I almost forgot to see what the guy playing it even looked like, but when I did I saw that he had yellow eyes and slightly spiked golden-blond hair that almost went down to his chin.

Another boy, also a Slifer Red, had straight black-brown hair and dark eyes that looked either brown or red. I noticed that he was playing a left-handed, cherry-red and white Fender Jazz Bass.

The third person was a student from Ra Yellow, evident by the bright yellow blazer he was sporting. This guy processed short, light purple hair with matching eyes and was currently hard at work playing a Korg Triton TR keyboard.

Finally, providing a pretty awesome beat with a Yamaha drum kit was a pink-haired Obelisk Blue girl with forest green eyes. Upon closer inspection, I soon realized that it was that same, strange girl I had met at the girls' dorm that one time.

Although I had originally planned on just taking a quick look and then simply leave, I found myself rather enjoying these guys' music, so I ended up sticking around for the whole performance.

When their song had finally come to an end, the blond turned to his bandmates and grinned. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I thought we sounded pretty awesome that time!"

The brunet just grimaced as he crossed his arms over his chest irritably. "Yeah; well, _maybe_, but need I remind you, Masaru, that we still don't have any lyrics for this new song which is not good considering that we're running out of time here!"

The boy apparently named Masaru took a few steps back, laughing nervously. "Of course I haven't forgotten about that, Ryuu," he answered his companion. "But don't worry! I'm sure we'll think of something in time!"

"Not at the rate we're going…" the purple-haired Ra muttered flatly. "And especially not with you two arguing all of the time…"

"Way to think positive, Satoshi," the yellow-eyed Slifer said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"He's just being realistic," the brunet pointed out. "Honestly, I don't know why you told the student council that we would perform at that stupid dance anyway!"

"I just thought it would be a good opportunity for us to get our names out there some more!"

As her three other bandmates continued to argue amongst themselves, the pink-haired drummer in the back just quietly watched them go at it as she snacked on a bag of potato chips that she appeared to pull out of nowhere…

In the event that this little argument turned physical (which would be just awful since a scuffle would no doubt damage those cool instruments of theirs), I decided to make my presence known in the hopes of disrupting their dispute.

"Ah-hum," I cleared my throat loudly as I slid the door open all the way and stepped into the dojo-like room.

That did it, alright. The quartet quieted down long enough to look over at me, though to be honest, now that I had their attention, I didn't exactly know what to do with it.

"Um, hi there," I said quietly with a sheepish, little wave.

"Uh… hey?" the blond replied, though due to the confused tone of his voice, it came out more like a question.

"Not to sound rude or anything, but just who are you?" the Ra asked.

"Crystal Yuki," I introduced myself with a formal bow since I was sure that these were upperclassmen I was dealing with. "P-please commit it to memory…"

"_Okay_… Now what are you doing here exactly?" the dark-eyed boy questioned in a half-annoyed tone. "We were kind of in the middle of something here."

My cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. "S-sorry about barging in like that… It's just that I heard you playing all the way from my room and so I came here because I was curious," I admitted shyly. "But if it makes you feel any better, I thought you guys were really good!"

After hearing the complement, the guy with the Mustang grinned and got all excited suddenly as he jumped a few feet closer to me. "Wow! You really think so?" he exclaimed, his yellow eyes sparkling. "I guess you must have really good taste in music then, huh?"

I sweat-dropped and just nodded slightly for the hell of it. "I suppose that's one way of putting it… Um, but if you don't mind me asking, just what is this place anyway?"

"Well, _technically_ this is supposed to be the Slifer dueling arena, but since no one really ever seems to use it, Banner's been letting us use it as a practice room," the guitarist answered. "Oh, and my name's Masaru Kirisame in case you were wondering!"

"N-nice to meet you…" I said with what I'm sure was an awkward smile as I thought about how this guy could almost give Jaden a run for his money in the unbridled enthusiasm department…

"Same here," he nodded before turning his head to his friend with the brown hair as if he was waiting for him to do something.

"What?" the other Slifer questioned with a raised eyebrow as he just stared at the blond.

"Stop being rude and introduce yourself already," Masaru glared back at him. "Can't you see that we have a fan here?"

"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself saying things like that? But whatever…" the bass player said, rolling his eyes before he looked in my direction. "Hey, kid. The name's Ryuu Hakurei."

Another small sweat drop ran down the side of my face right then. Well, wasn't he just a ball of sunshine…

"And I am Satoshi Komeiji," the boy with the keyboard introduced himself next with a polite bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Yuki."

While all of these introductions were going on, the Obelisk girl sitting behind the drums was still working on that bag of chips she had. However, once she noticed that she was the only one in her little group not to speak up, she finally did. "Hmm…? Is it my turn then…?" she asked sleepily before looking straight at me. "Hello there. It's nice to see you again. Oh, and I'm Sakura Saigyouji by the way..."

"Wait. You two have already met before?" Masaru wondered as he looked at Sakura and then at me.

"Yes; kind of…" I explained. "I tried to get her to answer a question this one time, but instead she just handed me a piece of candy and then walked off…"

"Yeah, that's Sakura for you," the blond laughed. "She can be a bit odd at times, but she's still pretty awesome, and especially when you give her a pair of drumsticks!"

"Huh? Someone has chicken…?" Sakura asked after hearing that last comment, apparently mistaking the mention of the musical drumsticks for the edible kind. You know, I was beginning to think that this girl was very fond of eating a lot… And yet, she was surprisingly thin, so you never would have guessed…

"No, not _those_ kinds of drumsticks, Sakura," Ryuu corrected her. "He's talking about the ones that you're holding there in your hand."

"Oh. Of course…" she smiled sheepishly as she looked down at the two wooden percussion sticks that were still clenched in her right hand.

Normally, I probably would have found an excuse to leave and hightail it out of there by now, but these guys had somehow managed to spark my interest, so I thought I'd try and stay a bit longer. Still, I kind of surprised myself by actually starting up another conversation.

"Um, so before it looked like you guys were having a hard time about something…" I said quietly. "Did something happen?"

"Boy, I'll say!" Ryuu huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as he glanced crossly over at Masaru. "Einstein over here thought it was a good idea to sign us up to perform at some dance the school's hosting next Friday."

"And that's a bad thing?" Although the idea of a party-type event at school being held outside of a festival or graduation did seem pretty odd, I still wasn't seeing what the real problem was.

"It is when you take into account that we still have close to nothing," Satoshi explained.

"Huh?" I blinked a few times in confusion. "What do you mean you have 'nothing'? You were all playing something before, weren't you?"

"Well, of course we have some other songs and all, but I kinda already told the dance committee that we'd play something new just for the dance," Masaru laughed uneasily as he scratched the back of his head. "Though, unfortunately, that song you heard before is just about the only thing we have right now and we still don't really have any lyrics for it yet…"

"I see…" I mumbled under my breath as I finally realized the predicament they were in.

Again, it really would have been in my best interest to just wish them good luck in their endeavors and simply get the hell out of there, but leaving these guys stranded on a sinking ship just didn't seem like right thing to do now for some reason…

"Um, well, if you're really having that hard a time, I think that maybe I could help you come up with some lyrics if you want…" I suggested.

"Huh? Seriously?" Masaru asked eagerly, reacting as if I had just told him I found the cure for cancer or something.

"Yeah, sure…" was my reply as I started fidgeting with my fingers a bit. It still felt weird actually offering someone else assistance, but somehow I knew _not_ trying to do anything would just probably make me feel worse at this point. "I mean, I write songs for myself every now and then, so I'm sure I could help you get _something_ decent before Friday."

"Really? That would be great!" the blond exclaimed with a bright smile. He turned to look back at his bandmates then. "What do you guys think?"

Ryuu sighed heavily and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, seeing as how we're desperate, and considering how Masaru pretty much sucks at writing songs anyway, I guess we really have nothing to lose…" Again, this guy's 'cheery' disposition was simply almost too much to handle…

Satoshi and Sakura just simply nodded in agreement as well, apparently not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Then that settles it," Masaru grinned as he faced me again. "If you were serious about what you said before, then Trap Attention will gladly take you up on your offer, Crystal."

"Trap Attention?" I echoed with a tilt of the head.

"That's the name of our band, of course!"

"_Oh,_" I said with a small laugh. That was sure an unusual name but, at the same time, I found it pretty interesting. "Well, at any rate, I'll do my best to be of some service so you won't have to miss that deadline of yours." A six day window certainly wasn't the best timeframe to work with, but I thought it was still doable. And besides, who didn't love a good challenge anyway?

After a second, since it was still bothering me, I decided to ask, "Um, but just out of curiosity, do any of you think you could tell me what the deal is with this whole dance-thing anyway?"

* * *

*** **_**"Distant from You…"**_** is a song composed by Yoko Shimomura from the game **_**Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. **_**While I do have a copy of that game and even have that song on my ipod, I obviously don't own the rights to either.**

**I also don't own any of the instrument brands I happened to name in this chapter by the way. **

…

**Misha: Well, it looks like that's another chapter done. Heh… I said I wouldn't make this chapter that long, but I guess that ended up being a lie since it still turned out to be over 12 pages in Microsoft Word. It's not **_**that**_** long; however, to me, it's not really short either. There was no duel in this one though, so I hope it didn't bore you too much with seemingly random events! To be honest, I guess this was kind of like a filler chapter or something… **

**Someone asked before if I was going to be following the anime, and the answer is yes (though with my own spin on things, of course), but I don't think I'll actually get to the Shadow Rider Arc until chapter 9 probably. See, I have all the chapters pretty much outlined already, more or less. It's just a matter of actually writing them that I have a hard time with… For example, when I have to write a paper for school, it can sometimes take me **_**hours**_** just to write **_**one**_** stupid paragraph, so you can imagine how slow I can be at trying to write a whole chapter... But if it makes you feel better, I usually get A's on all my essays, which means that there must be some method to my madness, so hopefully all the waits will be worth your while! (Did that make the slightest bit of sense, I wonder?) **

**Oh, but at least I was able to introduce some of the OCs that I wanted in this chapter. They won't actually be around for much of this story, but I just felt like putting them in anyway to give Crystal someone to interact with since she's still on the fence about Jaden's friends and all. And since I was being silly, I got all of their surnames and some aspects of their appearance from this other franchise I happen to enjoy. I don't think those last names are really even used as such, but I went with them on a whim and just didn't feel like changing my mind (I probably sound crazy to you or something, but I will still give you like a million-billion brownie points if you're able to actually figure out what the heck I'm talking about).**

**Okay, that's kind of all I got for now (I rant too much during these author's notes, don't I?). Please rate and review if you have the time, and I shall see you all again in the next chapter, though with school in my way, I don't know when that will be. Hopefully, not **_**too**_** terribly long… **

**Anyway, farewell!**


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